Thursday, April 22, 2010

Why Let our Students Blog?

A fellow student has just shared this excellent resource for teachers at The Learning Place . It contains program information on all sorts of topics, ranging from ICT's in the classroom and why and how we should use them, to ideas on literacy, numeracy and maths. This teachertube video shows some very compelling reasons for why we should let our students Blog.



I was particularly interested in this, as I am planning to set up a class Blog for my year 6/7 class this term, and I'm hoping it will be well accepted by the school community, and perhaps even generate some more interest in using Blogs in other classrooms at my school. As the video shows, allowing students to Blog improves students' communication, literacy, ownership, enables collaboration and sharing, stimulates discussion, empowers and provides motiviation and engagement, creativity and excitement.

What a wonderful way to incorpate Active Learning and Engagement Theory into lessons. If a student can learn something new, create something (e.g. an artwork or a short story) and then donate it to the Class Blog for fellow students and the entire school community to view, this ensures that a student is given every opportunity to engage with their learning? I struggle to think of a better and easier way to achieve this level of engagement!

As shown in this brief teachertube video, setting up a classroom Blog also allows students to reflect upon what they have learned and communicate it to others, it extends the walls of the classroom to other classes within the school, the wider school community, even the world, and gives all students a voice and an audience, even those who would otherwise not be heard. For example, children with special needs or those who are simply too shy to step up and speak out. Blogging can also enable learning to take place 24/7, whenever the student feels compelled to do so.

The last line of the video sums it up very succinctly - 'Write to learn, Blog to learn'

Thanks to http://rachelboyd.blogspot.com/ for this teachertube video and to my fellow student Carolyn Thorton for sharing this information about The Learning Place.
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4 comments:

  1. Megan IrwinApril 23, 2010 at 8:51 AM

    Hi Natalie,

    I also enjoyed reviewing the website that you mentioned above " the learning place". There is so much information out there, that it gets a little overwhelming sometimes. I agree that a student blog is an excellent way for students to learn, as blogging enables communication skills to be enhanced and group collaboration to be incorporated. Blogging also gives students ownership over something that they have created, and can have some control over, thus allowing for student centred learning. It also enables peer and teacher review, plus the opportunity for a world wide audience to view the classroom blog.

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  2. Meegan SommerfeldApril 23, 2010 at 9:30 AM

    I have a year 6/7 class also and I was wondering if a blog activity would be suitable for them, your video and posted showed me that this is something that students, even at a primary school level can interact with and learn from. Also thank you for providing me with the link to "The Learning Place", what a fantastic resource!

    Meegan Sommerfeld.

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  3. Meegan SommerfeldApril 23, 2010 at 9:33 AM

    Sorry I should have said "The Learning Space" not place!

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  4. Toni JordanApril 28, 2010 at 9:33 PM

    Hi Nat,
    I think your students will love having you and all your technologies! Blogging is a great way of engaging students in real life situations and topics and also for public sharing of work. In the video it says "give them skills for their digital futures". This is such a valid point, we don't know what else will be developed in the future and we need to engage with our learners where they are at now. Many students will have seen blogs, without knowing exactly what they are. I know I was actually regularly accessing a free sheet music blog without knowing how it worked. Now I know.
    Blogging is a fantastic tool for students of all ages. Privacy will have to be carefully monitored.

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