Weblogs: Pedagogy & Practice
One of the ideas that stood out from this chapter was the idea of "community building" -- the connections and sharing of ideas around common interests. I knew that was what blogging was all about, but as I reflect on its use in the school system, I think it's important to keep that goal in mind when planning classes and assignments that require blogs.
It isn't true blogging to simply post assignments or to ask a student to journal about his/her feelings or activities. True blogging happens when connections are made and thinking is expanded.
One of the first applications I considered for a potential blog was using the tool for my journalism class. My initial thought was to have a place where students could post ideas for stories/yearbook pages, upload photos, etc. While this is probably an efficient way to do these things, I later expanded my idea to include a place for peer editing/review -- where the teacher, other students, even parents could challenge the journalism students to think more deeply about the subjects they are writing about.
I also like the idea of creating an entire portfolio for a student's school career. As technology continues to grow, it would be important that the previous work could be incorporated into new technology applications.
Very interesting chapter!
What a great idea for a journalism class! I tried a NING site with my library skills class this year and it worked well. But as we learn more about blogs, I'm wondering if this would be a better forum for using collaboration and giving feedback on presentations and projects. I really like the idea that students have an audience besides the teacher--with the work our schools have been doing with the ICC and the Rigor and Relevance framework, an authentic audience seems to be an important component.
ReplyDeleteWith a writing class like journalism the automatic archive of a blog would be a great asset. A student could return to a previous version or a previous assignment and compare the pieces to see their growth.
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