It is interesting to read articles/blogs on other school
systems outside of the United States. In
a recent article called Educational Blogging by Stephen Downes, he discusses the use
of technology at the Institut St-Joseph located in Quebec City. When the students come into the classroom
they immediately log into cyberportfolios, a publication space that Principal
Mario Asselin calls a “virtual extension of the classroom” (Downes, 2004). These students use blogging as a necessary
tool in their learning. It is set up in
three components to make it organized. The first section is like a syllabus where
assignments are posted, another one is where students and teachers can
communicate with each other, and the last component is where each student can
put in their thoughts and receive personal feedback from the teacher, it is
more of a personal section.
One of the
students that he interviewed, a Dominic Ouellet-Tremblay who is a fifth grader
writes “The blogs give us a chance to communicate between us and motivate us to
write more. When we publish on our blog,
people from the entire world can respond by using the comments link. This way they can ask questions or simply
tell us what they like” (Downes, 2004).
In my personal opinion I believe that anything that encourages students
to want to learn and do more should be considered in the classroom. These students are able to communicate
outside of the classroom, receive feedback from individuals that they have
never met in their life, and yet those individuals have an impact on them in
some way. In addition, it brings the
students closer together. For instance,
as Mireille Guay, an instructor at St-Joseph noted, “the student who usually
talk very loud in the classroom and the student who is very timid have the same
writing space to voice their opinion. It
puts students in a situation of equity” (Downes, 2004).
I believe that blogging is closing the segregation gap and allowing students to express themselves more freely. It is a useful educational tool that benefits everyone, not just the students.
Downes, Stephen. (2004). Educational Blogging. Educause Review, Vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14-26.
The link to this page:
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920
Here is another article that I came across that I really enjoyed:
“Blogging Into the Classroom: Online Journals Make Their Way Into Education”
By Travis Daily
I found Mr. Daily’s thoughts on blogging in the classroom
not only interesting but easy to understand.
Before social media such as blogging, communication from the school or
teacher to the parents used to be limited to phone calls or
newsletters/mailings that were sent home (Blogging into the classroom: online
journals make their way into education, Daily).
Now teachers can create blog sites that can keep the parents informed
with what is going on in the classroom and allows for them to communicate
easier.
Blogs also allow students to
share their work, give feedback to one another, and pay more attention to
detail. Mr. Daily explains that
according to available site statistics, teenagers (13-18) lead the services in
blogs created. My main question is, if
students are already using tools such as blogging, why is it that more schools
are not using these tools? Personally, I feel that the
answer to this is, unfortunately, always comes back to the lack of
funding. There are so many positive
features with blogging that everyone can benefit from, such as allowing
students to “link” their findings to their work therefore using the blog as a
critical thinking tool. I guess the
question now is, what can we do in order to get these necessary resources into
the classroom? This is a question that if anyone has an answer to I would love to hear. I personally believe and feel that we have to look outside of our school system and perhaps take from those in other countries.
The link to his page: http://virtualinquiry.com/course/projects/bowriding/daily2.pdf
I really appreciated the points mentioned in the Educational Blogging article you reviewed. It sounds like the students really did enjoy being able to say something the whole world might hear and respond to, and I agree that doing anything that excites students like this, within reason, is wonderful. I also think the observation that students have an equal voice while blogging is interesting and not one I would have thought of, but it certainly makes sense. Thanks for bringing a few pro-blogging ideas forward!
ReplyDeleteHi Melanie! Thanks for your comment, I love hearing feedback since I am new to the blogging world. It is quite interesting to read about how other teachers and school systems outside of the United States are conducting education, I truly feel that we can learn a lot from them, but it all goes back to the lack of funding.
ReplyDeleteHere we go. Some very specific ideas on how to use blogs and some feedback on that use. To summarize with another sets of words. Organize with three parts: the assignments or the expectations from the teacher, the students' response to the assignments and finally a place where students can communicate with the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThis organization is not limited to blogs. The Moodle that WOU uses could do the same and more such as chats. It could be done simply with webpages but blogs are so friendly and easy to use.
Great gadgets at the bottom of the page.
I think we need to start using tags if every day, for every subject, every students writes several messages and the teacher responses. Whew, that's a lot of material on one website. How can we use tags?