If you are someone in the Doctorate Program at Wilkes and are not in the Ed Technology Track, this is a class you may want to take. As someone who is at the end of the Ed Leadership Program and only took the required technology courses, I am glad I have this experience.
I'd say the one negative I can think of would be the lack of technology available. For example some schools may not have computers in every classroom, or they do they may not work properly. The school may not have access to an updated lab; both of those problems could be a major hindrance for having blogs in the lesson plan. There are also many instances in which the students may not even have access to a computer or internet at home and this could hurt classroom use. Other issues that can be negative when it comes to blogs are that they could be difficult to grade and take time to set up and maintain. Set may be easy but the monitoring of the blog is what can be difficult, especially if it is a classroom blog.
I think one positive aspect of blogging would be that it is an open communication line. If the teacher is using the blog to update parents on the happenings of the classroom they have all of that information at such easy access. Blogs can also give the quiet student who does not like to speak in class a chance to share ideas without the fear of talking out loud in class
The blog can also encourage reading and writing. Students who spend more time on the computer then they do reading novels may spend more time reading assignments and writing about them in a blog format. If you are using a blog and students are still learning to spell, you could try disabling automatic spell checking software to encourage them to check their own spelling.
Post again soon!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Brian!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the wonderful world of blogging!
I agree with your observation that blogs could be an open communication line. I've seen so many quiet students really open up in online posts and they are such a great way to keep everyone informed and involved. As an English teacher, I also like that you pointed out the reading and writing benefits because these tools are educationally useless unless we align them with key content objectives.
I hope you keep blogging! :o)
Thanks for sharing these major issues related to digital divide, Brian. I agree that from the technology integration big picture, these issues have to be considered and dealt with whenever a teacher starts thinking about using a certain technology or tool for the classroom teaching.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will like using blogging!
Brian, you can monitor the blogs for your classroom by having email notification when comments are posted. If the comment comes to your email, it is easy to check off who has contributed. If you are not familiar with how to set this up, just email and I can walk you through it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that many students may struggle not with the task of blogging itself but with just getting access! I know schools often block sites like blogger. One site that schools are more willing to accept is edublog because it is an interface that is made for educators.
ReplyDelete