How I envy all of you digital natives out there. My experience so far is that I am way too slow at getting my thoughts creatively organised into a blog that I am happy to publish, however, I am enjoying the experience of this new online learning environment and I can see how students could engage positively with learning tasks this way.
So, what is a blog? A blog is like a journal or a diary only it is created using the internet. Setting up a blog can be done by signing up to a website such as www.blogger.com
Blogs allow people to share different types of information for various purposes. Personal blogs might include sharing photos of holidays or weddings. Other blogs focus on specific topics such as music, art, environmental issues or current affairs.
Although blogs are usually written in a quick informal style bloggers aim their writing at a target audience.
Educational benefits:
- interesting and fun way for students and teachers to communicate and collaborate with each other.
- promotes an interactive approach to learning more so than the traditional chalk and talk method.
- engages students positively in learning tasks.
- valuable reflective learning tool
- blogs can be edited to include new learnings.
Classroom use:
- exchange knowledge, expertise and experiences; to share ideas, stories, music and art.
- for personal use as an online diary or journal.
- for educational purposes for teachers and students.
Challenges:
- safety and security of personal information and identity
- school policies and procedures for blogging should be adhered to.
- parental consent should be obtained.
- students need to be trained in issues regarding access, privacy, security and netiquette.
- content in blogs may not be factual and should be recognised as the opinion of the student.
The link below addresses the following topics of interest about blogging for educational purposes it also feaatures some examples of student blogs.
- educational value of blogs
- classroom and teacher applications
References
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47
Teachers First Home. (2007). Blog Basics for the Classroom. Retrieved August 17, 2010, from:
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfm
Judi your doing great. I really like your bright and colourful developing blog, the thought would not have crossed my mind that you weren't a Digital Native :).
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that blogs are a great effective tool for the classroom. After being intoduced by the e-Learning course to blogs i guess i have gone a bit blog crazy. I have been thinking of the many uses a blog will have in my future classroom (when i finally get there) :).
But i have also started to use them now, one for this subject and another i recently set up with my study group for my second subject Ensuring Student Success. The very useful blog is helping us to communicate and collaborate for our group presentation, any ideas, information and progress made on the assignment goes on our blog. It's a great way to work as a group when we can't have regular face to face meetings due to our busy study and work loads. Which goes to show blogs can be used for group work in and out of the classroom no matter the age group. :)
Hi Judij
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed viewing your blog, I too am a digital immigrant, learning every day. I was very frightened at first to test all the tools, but am slowly improving. I try and imagine uses for each and then have a bit of a play. I am discovering that what is important is to test and play with each tool and discover what we can do with them is more important at this stage than creating a magnificent piece eg powerpoint or movie.
Have a look at my blog.
Elsa