A web log, or blog, is an online journal that allows the user to post entries, on which subscribers to the blog can read and post comments. Since its conception in the late 90’s, it has grown into a popular tool for sharing information across the Internet.
Educators have taken advantage of this popularity and begun to use blogs as a teaching and learning tool. As a result, blogging in education has great impact on students, because it is something that is important to the students of today. I have been on both ends of the educational blogging world: as a teacher and as a student. As a student, I have found that blogging is a great reflective tool. It encourages us learners to use meta-cognition skills as we post our assignments and reflections to the Internet. Not to mention the excitement of reading comments from our peers! In my experience, I have learned more from reading the comments and reflections from peers than I would have in a traditional classroom setting.
As a teacher of 3rd grade, I have attempted to use blogging as a response to reading tool. For example, I will post a comprehension question and give the students an opportunity to respond. However, I have faced several challenges throughout my experience. One challenge is that my students are young and most of them are inexperienced on computers and the Internet. Luckily our school has a laptop computer lab, and I was able to use it to teach my class basic computer and Internet navigation skills. Once I got over that obstacle, I faced the challenge of third-grade grammar skills (or lack there-of). All of the responses were one or two sentence fragments with no punctuation or capitalization.
Another challenge to blogging in education is the student’s access to computer and Internet at home. I teach in a low socioeconomic area, so I was concerned about this possibility. Once I performed a technology survey on my students, I found that few of them even owned a computer, much less the Internet. Therefore, I was limited on assigning at-home computer based homework. To overcome that obstacle, I assigned Internet-based class work and allowed computer lab time to complete the assignment.
In my personal example, I simply used blogs in education as a response to text tool. However, blogs can have other implications in education. My classroom blog was completely teacher-administered, in other words, I controlled all action on the blog. Other educational blogs, like the one for IT648, are used as an educational portfolio, in which the student is the administrator of his or her own blog, but follows the assignment schedule set by the instructor. A third type of blog used in education is a fusion of the two types. This type of blog receives input from both the instructor and the students. Each type of educational blog has its place in the teaching and learning environment, but it is up to the instructor to decide which type of blog will be best for his or her class and purpose.
I worked with a brilliant teacher last year. (8th Grade) She used blogs for the kids to take on the role of a historical African-American scientist. I thought this was awesome that she had the kids take on the role of the figure that they were researching. I'm not sure if this could be applicable for the 3rd grade kids, but maybe... if you were reading a book with them, you could "blog" as the main character and present them situations for them to read and respond to.. or something... just food for thought.
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