STSD Curriculum & Technology Update

Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.

Teaching Blogging

Our biggest challenge in education is thinking differently about using technology. The on-ramp to using these technologies is to apply them in ways that are familiar. But let’s not stop there! Technology can be a catalyst for change in the classroom - a shift from standard delivery to new ways that engage students differently.

One of those technologies is blogging. A common use of a weblog is for students to keep an electronic journal. This is a great start, but not enough! It doesn’t really take full advantage of the tool. In a recent article in the English Journal, Tiffany and Bud Hunt offer some suggestions for taking blogging to the next level.

1. Research-related posts - What questions do you have as you complete your research? What information are you finding? What resources are you using?
2. Class content posts - What questions do you have about the ideas and content being discussed in class?
3. Classmate-related posts - Read the work of others! Comment! What questions do you have about their work?

We will see the real power of these new technologies when they transform the way we do business in the classroom. If you’d like to use blogs in your class, please contact me. We are using a new blogging tool this year - 21classes. We would love to see the interest in student blogging grow!

Link to Linkin’ (B)logs: A New Literacy of Hyperlinks

Comments

This article gives some great examples of the multi-dimensional reading that our students are using now and will continue to use.  It got me thinking that I could have my students participate in some activities like those described in the article.  Often when we read an informational book in class, the kids are interested enough to do more research (on their own and informal) into what we are learning about.  They often bring in books from the library, printouts from a computer, or items from home that have something to do with the topic.  I think it would be great to provide a place on my wiki for them to post this type of information and then we could share it in class via the wiki and it would then be available to parents and the community to see as well.  Randy, could you assist me in setting this up?  I’d like them to be able to submit content, but would prefer to moderate it and assist the student in editing it, if needed, before it becomes public on the wiki.  Thanks!

Randy’s title speaks to an important educational area that is often overlooked as classroom learning shifts to emergent technologies.  As educators, we use blogging as a tool, but do we, in fact, teach “blogging” as an information literacy genre.  Without engaging in the difficult or nearly impossible task of showing students sample blogsites, I suspect we do teach the evolving new literacies (mini-blogging, videoblogging...) as a genre. 

I think it is easier to find authentic applications for wikis; blogs can all too easily fall into just another way to make a book review posted to a blog feel more like a journal entry.  I know, because last year we went there.  Having said that, however, I know that last year’s classes used their blogs in some unconventional ways.  For their mid-term exam. the tenth graders took their exam on their blog.  They had 3 days to make any changes to their digital texts before I assessed them.  They did engage in serious editing, and the results were excellent.  You can view them here: http://www.salisbury21.org/blog/index.php/rj10/2007/01/.  Because the process was so successful, Grade 11 took their final exam on their blogs.  You can view them here: http://www.salisbury21.org/blog/index.php/rj11 and here: http://www.salisbury21.org/blog/index.php/ip2. 

Another use of blogging that the students enjoyed was a response to a photoblog I created for a unit on Emerson’s “Young American” essay.  You can view the photoblog lesson here: http://www.salisbury21.org/blog/index.php/photoblog/category/C4/.  You can view the students’ responses here: http://www.salisbury21.org/blog/index.php/ip2/2007/05/.  My favorite blog use with the students was asking them to “represent” what America had to do in order to remain “...a country of the future.” You can enjoy their responses here: http://www.salisbury21.org/blog/index.php/ip2/2007/06/.

Sometimes when I reflect on what we have done with digital literacy, I am pleased with the initiatives, and sometimes I admit that when shift happens, it can be messy, and it may not be the best use.  But I learn from my mistakes, and I try to make it better next time.  What I love about the process is the engagement of my students--and myself--as co-learners.  I would not exchange that experience for anything.

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