A blog for my classroom would be used for students to reflect on lessons or homework assignments and to discuss topics they do not understand. They could also include strategies or techniques that they enjoy, which help them to learn. Other students could comment on solutions or different strategies that they used to understand the topic. Sometimes students can explain things in a way that is easier for their peers to understand. Those student-teachers can contribute to best practices that they would like the teacher to use more or changes to strategies they already use. In an article promoting interaction through blogging, “blogging was seen to enhance interactive discussion with their peers and promote collaborative learning” (Gunduz, 2016, p. 440). This blog would also be used by teachers to get constant feedback from students regarding their understanding of topics and acquire ideas for improving their teaching.
I teach math to ninth and tenth graders who are working on developing independence in learning. A blog would be a space where they can talk about their struggles to peers and get ideas and strategies to help them be successful. With a teacher also involved, “blogging offers both the freedom of expression and the guidance some students have grown accustomed to, thus easing students into an active learning practice” (Pilkington, 2018, p. 215). A blog is not in real-time, so students will be able to think about their posts and formulate what they want to say without being face-to-face with someone. However, they can still be interactive and work with classmates as they comment on each others’ blogs. This would allow students to empathize with each other because they are struggling with the same issues, or it could give students confidence and ownership when they can help a classmate.
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards met by teachers using blogs are being a learner, a leader, and a collaborator (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). Blogs allow a space for teachers to learn which strategies work best for their students. They show leadership in technology and risk-taking, modeling that trying new tools can help build success even if you struggle at first. Lastly, blogs allow teachers to collaborate with their students to navigate the best ways to succeed.
The two ISTE standards that are met by students are empowered learners and knowledge constructors (International Society for Technology in Education, 2016). Students can take charge of their learning by blogging about their struggles and explaining their needs. Other students then can become the knowledge constructor as they share strategies or tools that work for them to help their classmates succeed.
Blogging is a tool that could be useful in my classroom to give students a voice and some ownership of their learning. I will also benefit from listening to my students’ input to shape my teaching strategies.
References
Gunduz, M. (2016). Promoting interaction through blogging in language classrooms. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 2(2), 438–443.
International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE). (2008). Standards for educators. https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators
International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE). (2016). Standards for students. https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
Pilkington, O. A. (2018). Active learning for an online composition classroom: Blogging as an enhancement of online curriculum. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 47(2), 213–226.
I like the idea that you want students to take control of their own blogging and learning. Not only will they be ready to experience this in the real world, but it will allow them to take responsibiloty for their own learning. Hopefully the blogging will allow students to recoginize their struggles and by blogging, it will help them overcome their struggles
ReplyDeleteThank you for your input. Yes I hope that recognizing their struggles and expressing them by writing about them will help them overcome them. The hope is that someone else could also see that they are struggling on the same thing and then they can work together to solve the problem.
DeleteI really like the idea that you presented about using classroom blogs so that students could post about homework assignments and content that they did not understand. I totally agree that students may be able to explain a concept in a different way to their peers and now it is clearer to them. A blog seems like a very good platform for this sort of interaction. A challenge that you may encounter is that some students may even be hesitant to post on the blog that they do not understand. As a high school mathematics teacher, I struggle to get some of my students to understand that is okay to not fully understand something or to make a mistake and not know where you went wrong. Students may feel that they may be put down or made fun of for not understanding or being able to do a problem. I believe this challenge could be very easily overcome by just modeling for the students what is good online behavior and how they need to professionally respond to their peers. I have always found a good example and a bad example make for wonderful modeling scenarios in the classroom. I believe that once you have fully modeled this expectation, your students will do an awesome job helping each other.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your input. I agree that students may have trouble putting themselves out there and being vulnerable. I like your idea of modeling scenarios for students to follow so they have some guidelines. I too try to always emphasize that failure is a big part of learning, but they do not always see it that way.
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