Thursday, June 21, 2007
Discussion Week 2
In Chapter 2 of Will Richardson's book, you read about the various ways blogs can be used in education. How do you see blogs being used by you in your particular environment? Do you see them being used just by you? By you and students? Just students? If possible, give a specific idea you may have for incorporating blogs in your setting.
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As a NEW school library media specialist at the middle school level, it is easy to see blogs being useful in my environment. I could see using a blog as a personal, professional tool to reflect on my first year as a school LMS. I could see using a blog as a newsletter of sorts, to keep students, staff, parents, and community members up-to-date about the school library's happenings. A blog would also be a great way to keep students and staff informed of new books in the library and to generate discussions on those books. A blog could also be a different version of a book club; students could hold their discussions online in their own time. All of these different uses for blogging could help make my school's library and library media program even better than it already is.
One other way that I see blogs as an important part of my job is to help other teachers see how they could use them in their classes. Hopefully, I can help introduce teachers to the benefits and uses of blogging, find blog resources that fit their content areas, and perhaps even start a school blog to help focus professional development and growth.
I can see introducing blogging to the English teachers in the high school. Because they already do a lot of journaling, blogging would be a great way for them to continue with their curriculum using this new technology. Because I am also a media specialist, I would use blogging with my Book Review Team. Currently my club has a very static web page. Students write out their reviews and then they are posted to the page. Blogging would allow the students to interact with each other about their reviews. They could add comments and new reviews when they feel like it. I also like Lynn's idea to use a blog to share the new books and materials that come into the library with staff. Currently there is no good way to share this information with them, and I think this would be very beneficial for the staff.
Shelly
Because I teach multimedia, which involves video production and creation of radio dramas and video scripts I can see myself using blogs to allow groups of students to collaborate on scripts and story ideas rather than necessarily doing it during class. Of course in our district not all students have easy access to computers. With the new 1 to 1 initiative at out school, all incoming freshmen will be given an Apple laptop. So in one year my Sophmores will all have laptops.
As a math and reading teacher, my plans for blogging in the classroom lean more towards the reading side of things. For each reading unit my students participate in, they get to read a novel of choice and must complete a project regarding the book. Perhaps, during these units, my students could keep a daily journal of their book (or blog). This would give me the opportunity to see what they are reading and understanding and would give them the chance to talk about and share their feelings on these books. I also run literature circle groups in my room. How cool would it be for my students to complete their literature circle roles in the form of a blog rather than in their notebooks. There are so many things to think about when considering using blogs in the classroom. There is so much teaching that must be done before the students will respect and understand the policies and expectations that accompany using a blog. What a big undertaking for me but what an amazing experience for them!
I definitely see Blogging in my future as a Library Media Specialist! My biggest use would be to post book reviews, not only by me, but also by my students. Kids recommending books to other kids is so valuable and motivating. I would also love to see teachers and parents taking an active role as well. I should be thinking of more than just book reviews- I loved Lynn's idea of a web-based newletter. This would be a great way to keep everyone up-to-date on what's happening in the library. Another great idea is to promote the new books and resource materials through your blog. I do, however, see two small potential problems- for your blog to be really useful, people have to take the time to come and visit. Some teachers simply won't, and some parents may not have the access. My other problem with using blogs with my students is that being in an elementary setting, the kids don't have the keyboarding capability or the technology know-how. Perhaps classroom teachers could do a whole class post? That would be fun for the little ones, and a great writing lesson for the teacher! I will be teaching technology classes with the 4th and 5th graders, so we could add links to some of their projects. This would be a terrific way to give my students an even larger audience. Lastly, I think Amanda touched on a huge point- we need to teach how to utilize blogs safely and respectfully first and foremost.
First of all I think that I will have to fly under the radar to even host a blog in an educational setting. If I decide to be a renegade and hide from our internet Nazi, I would most likely use it for my health classes. I often tell my students that this class intimately involves them, health is important to us all. I would like it to be a collaborative arena. I would hope that myself and students would use/participate in a class blog. Although I am not sure a blog is the best vehicle for my needs. One of my ideas would be to post notes, worksheets, questions, and collaborative assignments on this site. I want students to be able to access class work as well as participate in class activities.
I see a number of ways blogging can be used at my school. We have a few teachers that like to whine and complain about mostly irrelevant things. If I create a blog site for them to vent, they can get it out of their systems and suddenly our faculty meetings will be much shorter. I also plan to use blogs with our Freshmen mentoring program I have been put in charge of, allowing them to have a type of online meeting (idea sharing) place as many of them are difficult to get at one time for a face to face meeting, since they have busy and often conflicting schedules.
If my school district would allow blogging I would love to introduce a class blog. I teach special education and occasionally I long term sub regular ed in my school. I could post assignment questions,notes, worksheets and examples research projects etc.. in attempts that my students would participate in class blog. This would allow the student to share ideas and participate in group activities.
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