Blogs in School!?!

If done correctly blogging with students could be an effective learning tool in the classroom. The world is changing and technology has become one of the biggest influences in a child’s education and life. It can be argued that most of this new technology acts as a distraction from learning. I believe that teachers can battle these distractions by using the many beneficial tools computers, gaming systems, the internets, and cell phones have to offer. Blogging is one of the tools students and teachers can share to increase learning, sharing, reading, and writing.

To make these tools effective students need to be eased into the world of educational technology, not thrust. Students need to get a feel for what blogging is before they are asked to be experts in the task. First students need to be introduced to blogs, and then gain experience interacting on blogs, and finally students can be integrated into a paperless classroom. Often times if students see a task as too hard or overwhelming because they do not understand it they will reject the new ideas all together. I know this because I was one of those students and I know many of my peers who were the same way. Before having students jump into creating, writing, and exploring their own blogs a teacher should use his or her own blog to help students get a feel for the educational side of blogging. All kinds of information can be given to students via blogs. Students can explore their teacher’s blog to find test dates, office hours, contact information, study guides, reading assignments, hand outs, and basically anything else that will help the students know more about the class. Teachers can start off by using their blog as a communication devise for their students. The next step in getting students using blogs is to have them interact. They can respond to a teacher’s posts or find and educational blog that they can respond to academically. This gets the students involved in safe and educations public writing. Older students adapt to technology quickly and can most likely be encouraged to get their own blog shortly after they start interacting with them. 

Being safe on the internet and blogs is very important especially when dealing with high school students who are often rebellious. Communication is key when it comes to student blogs. Both students and teachers need to be informed about what the blogs are for and how they will be monitored. Security needs to be implemented when using these blogs to protect the students, their identities, and the school. The use of this blog needs to be specified as much as possible to students and parents so that they understand the devise is being used in an appropriate and educational setting. As the leader in this system, teachers can limit the activity done by blogs to keep the students in a safe and educational environment. Teachers need to be active in approving posts and limiting student's access to other blogs on the internet. When used safely blogs can be affective in accessing knowledge, homework, writing, participation, expression of ideas, and intellectual output.

Before giving students blogs the focus needs to be on creating a safe workplace where they can be comfortable sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas. The main safely precaution for blogs is to make every expectation for their work clear. A blog will give each student a certain amount of freedom, but it needs to be evident to the entire class that they cannot go overboard with their freedom. Teachers need to manage the type of posts students are creating as well as who they are reaching out to through their blog. Developing a blog meets each requirement for the Oregon Educational Technology Standards. Students can be allowed to use creativity, innovation, communication, research, critical thinking, digital citizenship, and learn how forms of technology operate. Blogs also include the use of the essential skills called for by the Oregon Educational Technology Standards. Basically any skill that the standards call for can be implemented using blogs. Reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, analyzing, community involvement, cultural diversity, and even teamwork skills. For example to reach the standard of community involvement students can be encouraged to find blogs in nearby communities and respond with their own ideas on how they can influence the cause discussed in the communities blog. This also reaches the standards critical reading and writing, cultural diversity, team work, and creativity.  The National Educational Technology Standards can also be met by using blogs in the classroom. Inspired learning, introduce work influences, digital resposibility, leadership professionally, and the introduction of digital tools are all present in using blogs to conduct learning assessments. Students can be encouraged to make connections with blogs that are similar to their professional dreams in the future. Future educators, like myself, would find blogs that discuss the profession. Students will interact with the blogs and learn how to make professional connections. 

A lesson plan I found on Good Apps for Education was The Great Immigration Debate. I think this is a great lesson and is an important hot topic today for students. There is always controversy following newcomers especially with minorities still finding their foothold in America. The lesson uses a number of Google ran technologies that will be helpful for students to explore. Google Docs, Good News Timeline, and Google Image Search. The lesson plan gives students a number of video tutorials that will push them in the direction of using these tools to meet standards. Students use analytical skills as they research major trends in American history concerning immigration. Students share their finding and personal feelings in a discussion based Google Document with allows them to interact with their peers, work on writing skills, research skills, leadership in ideas, and teamwork as students start to feed off of each others responses. Students use their critical reading skills to explore readings included in the lesson plan. Teamwork is done as students divide into teams where discussion and future research takes place will also working on communal working skills. After completing the group work and research questions the students will use Google Docs to create a presentation. This uses creativity skills, teamwork, leadership skills, and responsibility,