Blogging has potential!
Before I started my master's in technology integration, I would have told anyone who that blogging is outdated and no one uses it anymore. I would not have had my students create a blog. I am now eating my words.
There have been many resources that I have been exploring the last couple weeks. One that stood out in my mind was a video clip called "Spotlight on Technology: Blogging in the Classroom." This clip featured a sixth-grade teacher, Kathy Martin, who asked students to start their own blog. Martin would require her students to do blog post, following a certain prompt, on their blogs. When she was first talking, I began thinking about my own online classroom. I thought there was no way my students would be willing to do this. Later in the video, it connected with me. She does not have them do a blog only to answer a prompt. That is part of it -- she does analyze their responses. However, by publishing their work online, it becomes a public forum. It is out there for everyone to see, including their classmates. Students now need to think analytically about what they are writing. They have to watch their grammar and punctuation, so they do not "look dumb in front of their peers (Laureate Education, 2015)." Students have to look at their word choice, and choose the most powerful words they can. This is genius.
With that lens, blogging is not outdated. It could not be more relevant. Students either have an online presence already, or they are on the brink of creating one. In no contents' curriculum will you find anything about being an online digital citizen. Schools may implement these types of lessons, but it is not required for any teacher to teach those specifics. Because there is an online presence waiting for every student, these kids need to be taught that words have power. Words can give the writer a specific impression on his/her/their reader. Students need to think about the impact they have, even when they are behind the screen and acting as "keyboard warriors." This is exactly what I want to teach my students at my online school.
Fortunately for me, I do teach high school --9th and 10th Grade English. Students at this age are probably the ones who need this lesson the most. Whether they currently have an online presence, they will be getting one sooner, rather than later. They are entering the workforce. They may not know this, but majority of people they will encounter in their future will be looking at my students' online presence. My students need to learn these skills sooner, rather than later.
With the current COVID-19 pandemic, students will be online for education more than ever. The blog, The Innovative Educator, talks about about a colleague named Sara. Sarah uses Facebook and Twitter to tell the story of her school and keep the school community in touch with what is happening with students. She provides a wonderful example of how a parent coordinators can tell the amazing stories of their school while strengthening the home-school connection with technology (Nielsen, 2016). Blogging can do this same thing for students and their families.
Yes, blogging with help students think beyond the prompt, but teacher will still be able to use this to accomplish teaching standards. There are plenty of ISTE Standards that students will meet while using a blog. For example, as mentioned before, students learn how to be a good digital citizen. ISTE standard 1.2 Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal, and ethical. Another example, ISTE standard 1.6 Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats, and digital media appropriate to their goals.
Not only can students demonstrate competency through the ISTE standards, but teachers can as well. Teachers like me, who have been hesitant to use blogs would accomplish ISTE standard 2.1 Learner: Educators continually improve their practice by learning from and with others and exploring proven and promising practices that leverage technology to improve student learning. Another example would be ISTE standard 2.3 Citizen: Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world. Teachers have the opportunity to model appropriate behaviors by using their own blogs. It is a win-win for all involved.
All-in-all, I am happily eating my words that blogging is an "outdated" source for technology in the classroom. It can and will be a great tool for many years to come. It will provide many opportunities for students to learn, aside from just responding to a prompt.
Resources:
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015c). Spotlight on technology: Blogging in the classroom [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Nielsen, L. (2016, February 28). Technology: Powerful Weapon or Greatest Foe? Retrieved from The Innovative Educator: https://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2016/02/technology-powerful-weapon-or-greatest.html
Hi Cortnie,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, I felt much like you with the use of blogs. I thought they were mostly outdated and not applicable in today’s classroom. However, I am also ready to give them a try and I believe your idea for high school English students will be a success. If I could offer any improvements to your idea, I would first like to know what type of work your students will publish. Will you allow them to post the work they choose or will all students be required to post the same type of work or similar responses to the same prompt? I think it would help you to meet ISTE standard 1.6 by allowing students to communicate in creative ways, rather than in one, standard format. I also think you could incorporate cross-curricular ideas, such as those posted in an Education World blog post (Granata, 2014). Could you tie in a prompt that relates to another subject, with the focus still being on the writing skills of your students?
Thank you for sharing and I look forward to following the progress of your blog efforts at the high school level.
-Brian
References
Granata, Kassondra (2014). Six Ideas for Using Blogs in the Classroom. Education World.
Retrieved January 23, 2022
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016a). ISTE standards for
students. Retrieved from https://iste.org/standards/for-students
Brian,
DeleteThank you for the suggestion. I have not gotten to that point yet, but your feedback is spot on. In the state of Utah, districts are pushing towards PBL learning, and your suggestion fits perfectly in that model. I could offer the blog as an option for students on a project. I also love when we are able to do cross-curricular assignments. I am very fortunate to be an English teacher, where that can be really easy. Thank you for the great suggestions!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Similarly to Brian and yourself, I have had that same thought many times during the past two weeks as we have been learning about blogs. Before we learned about their many versatile uses in the classroom, I also thought that they were outdated. One thing that helped me was to think of discussion boards as a form of a blog. Discussion boards are something that we see in online education a lot, and they are really just another type of blog (Calderon & Sood, 2020).
ReplyDeleteWhat are some specific ways that you plan to use blogs in your online classroom? I was also struck by the way that Ms. Martin used blogging as a way to foster peer evaluation and a collaborative culture in her classroom (Laureate Education, 2015). I also liked what you said about students developing their online presence. It is so important for our students to realize that what they say and do online matters beyond the here and now, especially when it comes to their professional and personal lives in the future (Sutherland et al., 2019). What would you think about using something like that as a prompt for your blog? If you wanted to be a little more broad, you could even give students the option of several different topics in the realm of digital citizenship: social media presence, cyber security, battling misinformation, etc. These are all things that I teach as an instructional technology coach, so I would love to hear your thoughts about this.
I would also like to let you know that some states are starting to require these concepts to be taught in public schools. My state of Virginia has just developed Computer Science standards. My team has been working with these standards for almost two years now. We have been developing lessons for our teachers to use these skills within the content they are already teaching. For example, a lesson could cover writing skills like main idea and author's purpose while simultaneously teaching students about digital citizenship and cybersecurity. I would love to hear your thoughts on that as well.
Thank you again for your thoughts. It is encouraging to hear from someone that is teaching in an online environment, and is not to burnt out to think of new and engaging ideas for her students. I am sure your students love your class. I think that they will love it even more after you dust off that previously thought to be outdated form of writing known as blogging.
References
Calderon, O., & Sood, C. (2020). Evaluating learning outcomes of an asynchronous online discussion assignment: a post-priori content analysis. Interactive Learning Environments, 28(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2018.1510421
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Spotlight on technology: Blogging in the classroom [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Sutherland, K., Freberg, K., & Driver, C. (2019). Australian employer perceptions of unprofessional social media behaviour and its impact on graduate employability. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 10(2), 104–121. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2019vol10no2art857
Mandi,
DeleteI love that you pointed out that using blogs is a form of discussion. I do believe that students need to practice discussion skills. The Common Core standards for English require students to learn these valuable discussion skills.
I love the idea of students using a blog to think critically about their online presence and work on proper behavior. Thank you for the prompt idea! I'm really enjoying this conversation, and I think it could be a great example to my students as to how to have ethical discussions through blogs.
Hey Cortnie, I feel as though we had the same assumption in regards to blogging. I too, felt it was outdated, and past its prime. The more I look into it I am realizing the great benefits it may have on our students. I really enjoyed your statement about students wanting to look smart for others as their work will be published for others to see. I do believe in 9th and 10th grade, students would be embarrassed and try more so they appear more intellectual. Do you have any suggestions for eighth grade students who do not seem to care about their grammar? My students seem to resort to text lingo quite often and I try and stress to them the importance of using proper grammar.
ReplyDeleteI believe you would be completing standards 2.2c ¨Model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation and adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning (ISTE, 2016b). What better way to get out of your comfort zone and experiment with a new tool. Your students would be completing standard 1.6a ¨Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication¨ (ISTE, 2016a). I hope I can find a way for my students to work with blogs, but for now I think it will only be with interacting with families.
References
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016a). ISTE standards for students. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016b). ISTE standards for students. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators