Blogging in the Classroom

MenuSlides 3-5--Ramaswami, Rama,(Nov. 2008). The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too). THE Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23562_4Slides 6-8--Nagel, Dave, (June 2008). K-12 Online Learning Environment adds ‘Student Safe’ Academic Blogging. THE Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22798/

Slides 9-11--Sturgeon, Julie, (Feb. 2008). Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging. THE Journal Retrieved from: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22014

Slide 12—Wrapping it up

The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too) : by Rama Ramaswami•This article discusses how blogging can be beneficial to a classroom.

•“The kids know the technology. What they don’t often know is how the technology can change them as students. Just because they understand Facebook doesn’t mean they understand how to be a better student of English or history” (Ramaswami 2008)

•Last year Barry Bachenheimer set out on a quest to prove the advantages of blogging in education. He asked 5 different subject area teachers to join him in this study.

•One in particular was an 11th grade English teacher who wanted to show how blogging could help a student when constructing a research paper. He assigned his 25 student class to write a research paper, with blogging help. Afterwards he surveyed them and here is what he found:

Ramaswami con’t•Bachenheimer also tried this experiment in an AP Spanish class with similar results.

•The teacher responded: “Most of the students in my class demonstrated greater overall ease of expression, which became apparent in in-class writing assignments” (Ramaswami 2008).

•Bachenheimer’s study lines up with a project by the Pew Internet & American Life Project entitled “Writing, Technology, and Teens” in which they interviewed blogging and non-blogging teens and found:

•After the case study the rest of the article discusses how teachers should blog with a purpose as well as keeping up with future technologies.

•They warn against: “putting technology ahead of the instruction” (Ramaswai 2008)•Bud Hunt, a High School educator, states, “Blogging doesn’t solve a problem just because you have the technology” (Ramaswami 2008).•Kevin Honeycutt, a Technology Integration Specialist, says that teachers need to experiment more with “software like wikis and blogs because they are readily available and often times free” (Ramaswami 2008).

Personal Reflection of Ramaswmi’s Article

•After reading this article I have a new found drive to use blogging in my classroom.

•I will also encourage my students to blog outside of the classroom, supervised by their parents.

•One thing in particular that we, as upcoming teachers, need to remember is that technology can be a great tool, but not a substitute for an instructional lesson plan.

•Blogs should be aids, not the teacher.•We should blog with a purpose! Not just blog for blogging’s sake.

•There was one quote in the article that gave me an epiphany:

•Deb Marciano says in the article, “We need to learn technology; otherwise our students won’t” (Ramaswami 2008).

•Some might see this quote and think “duh”, but it spoke to me and made me realize that I need to continue to keep up on emerging technologies so that I can give my students the best education I have to offer.

•And foremost: Teachers should never stop learning!

K-12 Online Learning Environment Adds ‘Student-Safe’ Academic Blogging:

by Dave Nagel•This article talks about eChalk now including blogging into their collaborate tools.

•eChalk is an “Online Learning Environment, targeted towards K-12 schools, provides a Web-based suite of communications, learning, management, administrative and collaboration tools, along with standards-aligned digital content” (Nagel 2008).

•eChalk says that their blog site “is an alternative to the “mindless distraction” of sites like MySpace and in which teachers and administrators can keep the focus on learning in a secure environment” (Nagel 2008).

Nagel con’t

•“The company reported, “The integrated blog is designed to improve how students practice writing and think by aligning K-12 education to higher education, where all assignments require cognitive skills like logic, reasoning, and judgment to be used regularly” (Nagel 2008).

•These blogs can be made public or private and “Posts and comments are archived in a portfolio that follows students year to year” (Nagel 2008).

•“The system also includes polling and survey tools for evaluating blogs based on student- and teacher-defined criteria” (Nagel 2008).

Personal Reflection of Nagel’s Article

•After visiting eChalk’s website I am very impressed on what it has to offer in a “safe environment”.

•Researching for this assignment, I came across several articles stating that blogging is dangerous because people can leave crude and explicit comments on kids’ blogs. With sites like eChalk, you won’t have to worry about that.

•The quote that sold me on the site was, “where all assignments require cognitive skills like logic, reasoning and judgment to be used regularly” (Nagel 2008).

•Students need to be challenged to learn and this website is one that I hope my future employers have in place for their educators.

Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging: by Julie Sturgeon

1. DON’T just dive in (Sturgeon 2008): “If you put kids on blogs without setting up your guidelines and objectives, I can guarantee you will have a lot of problems,” warns Anne Davis (Sturgeon 2008) A teacher should research blogs and blog sites. Be educated before presenting this to your classes. Davis also suggests, “have your students sign off on a code of conduct for blogging that covers bullying, slander, and foul language” (Sturgeon 2008)

2. DON’T confuse blogging with social networking (Sturgeon 2008): “MySpace, Facebook and other social networking tools are just that-social networking platforms” (Sturgeon 2008). Teachers should keep their students on task with

academic challenges and not get wrapped up in the social aspect of blogging. 3. DON’T leap at freebies (Sturgeon 2008): “Blogger.com and TypePad.com may not cost a cent to use, but these platforms do not offer the structure a school district needs”, says Jeffrey Yan (Sturgeon 2008). Yan says this because of the “advertisements on these sites that are out of the teacher’s control” (Sturgeon 2008).

Sturgeon con’t

4. DON’T force a sequential style (Sturgeon 2008): Blog posts can be lost over time due to updated posts being placed on top of them. Yan suggests to, “structure entries by topic rather than by time to help readers make more sense of a blog” (Sturgeon 2008).

5. DON’T leave the blogging to the students (Sturgeon 2008): A teacher should blog with their students on the topics and help stimulate cognitive growth through the assignments. Davis says, “A blog becomes a community. You get to know students in ways that they won’t reveal otherwise. A quiet child will give you her opinion [in a blog]” (Sturgeon 2008).

Julie Sturgeon is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis

Personal Reflection of Sturgeon’s Article

•This article had several good suggestions for how to handle blogging in a classroom

•I also thought that it was a great idea to have the children sign codes of conduct sheets before starting the assignment. We know how mean kids can get with cyber bullying, not to mention some children like to push their limits with wording and innuendoes.

•I enjoyed this quote, “We are writing in a way that traditional writing doesn’t match up. Blogging is more about exploration, discovery, creation, and the idea that students can do things that are immediately gratifying” (Sturgeon 2008).

•Teachers have to stay involved in the blogging process, not only to moderate, but to lead by example and join the classes community.

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Wrapping it up

•Is blogging a helpful tool in education?..........YES!

•After doing the research for this paper I have come to the conclusion that blogging is a very helpful tool in a child’s education. Blogging has been proven to reduce stress for research papers as well as get younger children to get more involved in the subject that they research.

•Technology is exploration that sparks a child’s curiosity thus improving their cognitive learning capacities.

•Blogging is not writing a traditional term paper, per say. Blogging allows the children to work with pictures, music and videos that lets them make a custom “paper” to express their views on the subject content.

•As teachers we need to stay up with the latest emerging technologies and when we implement a new technology we need to stay involved and lead by example.

•I will leave with my favorite quote about blogging; “The sky’s the limit-it’s a new literacy. Reading a blog online and learning how the hyperlinks and the comments work require skills that if we don’t teach them, then who will?” (Sturgeon 2008).