Blogs in the Classroom

Educational Blogging from:
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0450.pdf

As Education Queensland and the New Australian Curriculum both call for the use of ICTs to create quality learning experiences for 21st century learning, it is imperative that all teachers increasingly look towards improving their digital pedagogy (Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment, 2013). This should include tools that can let students inquire, create, communicate, operate with ICT as well as give opportunities for learning about the ethics and issues of the online environment as indicated in the general capabilities of the Australian Curriculum (General capabilities in the Australian Curriculum, 2013, pp. 49-50).  Blogging has the ability and flexibility to meet all of these needs. After trying several of the group one digital tools (Weebly and Wikispaces) I decided that a blog would be the quickest and easiest one for me to start with in the classroom. As class groups can be created in Blogger to keep students safe and secure while online and having used it before, I opted for this particular blog.

Using blogging in the classroom can have many advantages and possible draw backs as I noted in a previous blog post where I conducted a SWOT analysis. This can be viewed here: Creating a Blog.  However, most of the negatives can be easily overcome with appropriate scaffolding.

If, for example, one was to create a blog for a year three class the following considerations would have to be met:

• Safe secure environment
• Adequate instruction to students on ICT skills required
• Engaging activities such as the creation and embedding of multimodal tools
• Suggested websites if research is required
• Suitable  age appropriate picture, video and audio sources
• Cybersafety
• Explanation of copyright and Creative Commons sources
• Permission from parents or guardians if images of students are to be published
• Age appropriate responsible ICT use agreement between students and school (Department of Education and Children's Services, 2009)

In a blog students can have both monologue and dialogue, working individually or collaboratively (O’Donnell, 2006, p. 8). Brainstorming can begin in a blog and they can they can then link to and add information that they find. Cross curricular activities can be created, e.g. a blog on a science experiment may cover science, English, visual art and media studies. Assessment can be built into blog tasks via quizzes or assignments. Students can follow the blogs of experts and gain real-world experience. Widgets can be added and a variety of multimodal tools catering to all learning styles and literacy levels can be embedded, e.g. Voki, soundfiles, You Tube clips or add their own movies, thus enabling students to present their finished work in the blog.  Having the possibility of a worldwide audience often inspires students to see the importance of their own work. Feedback can also be given by both student and teacher in a blog, thus enabling the deep learning cited in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Downes cites many reasons as to the benefits of blogging in the classroom which I have mentioned in an earlier blog post: Benefits of Blogging in the Classroom (Downes, 2004)

Blogs must guide to writer to reflective analysis and cannot be just a way of delivering instruction. Above all, blog activities must meet TPACK requirements, that is, through the combination of content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and ICT knowledge create real world learning to guide students to the highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and become lifelong learners for the 21^st century.

There are many examples of great blogs in primary schools.  Here is one:

4KM and 4KJ @Leopold Primary School

Bibliography:

General capabilities in the Australian Curriculum. (2013, January). Retrieved March 30, 2013, from Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Pdf/Overview

Downes, S. (2004, September/October). Educational Blogging. Retrieved March 6, 2013, from EDUCAUSE Review: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/educational-blogging

O’Donnell, M. (2006). Blogging as pedagogic practice: Artefact and ecology. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 17, (5-19).

Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment. (2013). Digital pedagogy. Retrieved April 2, 2013, from Smart Classrooms: http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/developing-professionals/elearning-frameworks/index.html