What are blogs?
Whys do we use them?
How do we use them?
What do the students gain from them?
What do the teachers gain from them?
Pedagogical value of blogging
1. What are blogs
- A blank canvas, an online publishing space
- Used as an online journal
- Students can record their learning
- Self reflection
- Peer reflection
- Multimedia option to express what has been learned
- Increased motivation of the students
3. How do we use them?
"The importance of clarifying the role of the blog in the learning process: ". . . there must be concepts for students to think through, various resources and content segments to process, or ideas to construct"
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2008/10/avoiding-the-5-most-common-mistakes-in-using-blogs-with-students.aspx
Success with blogs depends on how the blog is structured and used.
So how have we used them with the ICT students? Introduced to Year 7, 8 & 9s since September 2008 by Alan, all students have set up a www.blogger.com account (many students have also setup Gmail accounts).Instructions were given with the students first topic booklets of the year for ICT, how to set up a blog and how the students are going to use their blogs for homework including a set of reflective questions.
The blog is used during the lesson to record visually by way of print screens, snap-shots of what the students are doing on their computers.For homework the students are asked to record and be reflective about the tasks they have completed during the lesson.
It is the first time in ICT that for homework a diary has been kept by students in which they have documented and reflected on their progression in each lesson and that most student successfully completed week on week.
Collecting all the students blogs at first was problematic, as a faculty we keep all the students records on excel registers and I asked the students to email their blogger addresses, then I placed them into the register and hyper linked them. Very time consuming.
I discovered that blogger addresses in Google Docs, hyperlink very quickly, so using my wikisite, I created a form (using Google Docs) that the students had to fill in.
http://msc-ks3technology.wikispaces.com/Year+7+ICT
The results automatically becomes a spreadsheet and finally became my register
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=phQtDNCVlx9EsY8Eq6xrxSg&hl=en_GB
4. What do the students gain from them?
- They can record their work that they have done on the computer as they work through the lesson.
- They can then reflect upon their learning, recap the tasks they have completed successfully, and consider why some tasks have not been completed so successfully.
- A continual self assessment using a medium and technology that is familiar yet new as a homework tool.
- Students create work and publish online a record of their achievements
- An individual publication: a one-way monologue or self-post to which others may comment but do not contribute.
- The original post remains as the student who posted it wanted it to be
- An instant window showing students progression during each lesson with visual prompts (the print screens), and completion of each set homework task.
- The teacher is able to mark each post by way of the comment tool, the student may also comment back, therefore an online dialog may be created.
- A useful tool for parents evening, linking from the register and records to a portfolio of work created by the student, with no extra work for the teacher or the student.
- Therefore engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read—reflecting, criticizing, questioning, and reacting.
- sharing resources
- responding to teacher prompts
- recording lesson highlights
- posting learning challenges
- reflecting on what was learned
- and engaging in online conversations
7. And finally, environmental & health issues
- No need to print out any half finished work, in order to show student's progression.
- No need for the teacher to carry around loads of paperwork in order to mark it!
