Instructors may choose from various approaches to implementing blogs in educational environments. Contributing factors to this decision may include the students’ age or possible network restrictions in the school. By far the most important consideration however would be the desired educational outcome of any specific blogging implementation.
Approaches to classroom blogs and the desired educational outcomes might include classroom management, learning journals, online notebooks, class discussion and personal expression (Echlin, 2007). A classroom management or online notebook approach may need to limit the blogs readership to the class itself or perhaps even just the individual student, teacher and parent (Echlin, 2007). While a student to teacher approach may have its place in a given circumstance and provide the desired advantage, surely the true power of blogging involves wider interactions. A learning journal or class discussion seems closer to the mark of leveraging the most value from this format. As Davies and Merchant (2009) point out however, merely creating an open blog in an educational setting wouldn’t guarantee enhanced learning through social participation or necessarily represent some new information-age literacy for instance. Such aspects must be specifically encouraged through careful lesson planning utilizing the blog.
Learning through social participation for instance would involve some requirement to read the blog posts of others and comment appropriately to create true discussion postings. The teacher would need to outline acceptable practices in commenting and generally oversee student interaction. Promoting new literacy practices might involve sending older students to research various topics through reading external blog posts and perhaps starting a topical blog themselves to engage a larger community. According to Davies and Merchant (2009), such exercises would essentially represent mature blogging practices save for the guiding hand of the instructor.
Surely, the benefits of educational blogs may reach far beyond the blog topic itself. Additional benefits include enhanced social skills, Internet etiquette, and new literacy practices. I believe the biggest benefit however lies in the actual writing of blog posts and responses. Having a larger audience to write for and receive feedback from gives students a reason to put forth their best effort at framing their thoughts and communicating through the written word. While quality writing could surely be an end unto itself, it also requires students to organize their own thoughts in a structured way. Writing for Edutopia, Moulton (2008) observes, “Writing is a reflective process, and the creation of content your going to share causes you to work hard to make your thinking clear”. In other words, clear writing encourages clear thinking. Surely this epitomizes educational goals for the twenty-first century.
References
Davies, J., & Merchant, G (2009). Web 2.0 for schools: Learning and social participation. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Echlin, H. (2008, April 9). Digital discussion: Take your class to the Internet: How to set up a blog in your classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved February 6, 2010, from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-discussion-take-your-class-to-internet
Moulton, J. (2008, March 25). Blogs, blogs everywhere: Does everyone need an Internet journal. Edutopia. Retrieved February 6, 2010, from http://www.edutopia.org/blogging-purpose
Excellent post, Russell. Your closing statement sums up your post and is a key component to the success of our students. "In other words, clear writing encourages clear thinking. Surely this epitomizes educational goals for the twenty-first century." By understanding how to do this, the student will also learn skills for evaluating the validity in other's writing.
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