As a frequent visitor of
EducationWorld.com, I decided to browse the articles for a change instead of
their helpful links to teacher worksheets. I stumbled upon an article that discusses blogging in the
elementary classroom. As I skimmed
the article to decide if I was interested or not, I had an ‘a-ha’ moment. Did you know…the word ‘blog’ comes from
weB-LOG! When I read that I felt
like a fool for never knowing that before…
Anyway, as we blog from time to
time, I wondered how this concept could be used in an elementary
setting. I found that this article
was extremely relevant for technology class. It was also as helpful for my future
classroom because I hope to use a blogging tool with my students.
The article explained how blogging has
expanded to more than just “Dear Diary.”
Now, they are used for a series of reasons: publishing news, sharing
announcements, ideas, rants, etc., and helping students become better writers. Studies have shown that students who
participate in an online work publishing activity increased their interest in
writing and quality of writing.
Students have a direct outlet of connecting with other students through
their writing on blogging websites.
There are dozens of student-friendly blog sites like Blogmeister and
Kidzblog that are available for use.
Think.com was mentioned in this article and sounded the most interesting to me. Students are only allowed to access e-mails and
websites created by peers or other Think.com schools. This site acts as a digital journal that students can use to
publish their work but is only seen by those cleared for permission. I believe that if this tool is utilized
in the classroom, student engagement could increase because students have a lot
of fun using the computers and sharing their work.
I explored a related article that discussed a teachers’ real experience on using blogs in the classroom. Brenda Dyck discussed how she encouraged students to express their opinions on certain topics and write it in their blog. In order to give students guidelines on what is expected from their blog, Brenda created a rubric that graded each student’s response. They were given either: excellent, satisfactory, or unsatisfactory based on each criterion. This rubric would be a great way to make sure students are not abusing their privileges on the blogs and doing what is expected of them.
With any technological tool present
in the classroom, privacy and safety are big concerns among teachers, parents,
and school districts. Many
cautions must be taken in order to avoid an unfortunate incident involving
student publications. With the
blogging sites I mentioned before, individual website security settings are
available during use. Teachers
have the options of reviewing students’ posts before publication and can
determine if work is published or needs further revisions.
Tips for elementary blogging safety:
Check out your schools’ Acceptable
Use Policy.
Get the ‘o-k’ for use from the
administration, school district, and parents.
Use blog sites that require a
password to publish student work.
Review student work before
publishing.
Avoid identifiable information on
students.
Create a blogging rubric to ensure
proper blog use.
Encourage creativity and fun!
Ms. Lyvers
Links to these articles
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/voice/voice123.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment