In The Classroom: Why Blogs Are Not The Enemy
There is a problem with blogs in the classroom - a problem that has many educators
looking at blogging and not understanding why one would want to blog, how it benefits students, or how it engages them in the learning process.
The word blog is short for "Web log". If we look at blogs as nothing more than electronic journals-replacing written journals-than I can understand why educators do not "get" how blogs work. Blogs as journals do not engage students any more in the learning process than a regular journal would. A journal is simple; a student writes, the teacher reads. An online journal is much the same. The students write in their blogs, and the teacher and the world reads them.
Blogs do not make the grading of journals any easier. In fact, many teachers find it more time-consuming. Slow Internet speed, the constant clicking from one blog to the next, or the typing of URL after URL...reading blogs can be tedious.
Further, we cannot protect our students from "bad people." Anyone could stumble upon their blogs. We do not know these people; we do not know where they are from, or what they do.
The problem with blogs: We do not understand them.
Extending the Conversation
Anyone who has a blog knows that education has it all wrong. If you are not a blogger, or are still trying to wrap your head around this new mode of communication in education. Let me see if I can help.
Blogs are not about writing, they are about a conversation. I have seen teachers give students a class assignment on their blog to write answers to questions or their thoughts on an issue, yet those thoughts, those conversations, are not brought back into the classroom to enhance the exchance of information and debate within. Sure, it is great to read how students respond to a question, but if you do not bring the conversation back into the classroom, they are no different from assignments written on paper and handed in to the teacher for a grade.
The power of blogging comes from the conversation threads that can be carried on within them. Few teachers, though, give their students time to read, reflect, or to leave comments during class-or even as homework on other's blogs. Yet those comments, either made by classmates or by others, can deepen learning and understanding.
When blogs are viewed as vehicles for dialogue, they bring a completely new meaning to the term blogging. They are no longer journal assignments; they are thoughtful discussions that extend well after a lesson ends.
If you are blogging with your students, or thinking of blogging with your students, I encourage you to not think of blogs as writing assignments, but instead as conversations that invite feedback from a variety of quarters on any topic. Blogging brings a new dimension to the classroom. You cannot blog and not change the structure of your classroom.
As educators, we are not accustomed to discussions extending past 3 o'clock, when the school bell rings. We are not used to having conversations that include more than the 30 students in our class, or ones that can affect student peers in a different hemisphere.
So really, there isn't a problem with blogs. The problem lies in how we utilize the power of the conversations that they create to engage students in the learning process.
Beyond the Classroom Walls
When we blog, whether in or out of school, communication encourages debate in many venues. It might happen at a staff meeting, in the classroom, or even over dinner. Once you start to blog and that information/thought/conversation becomes public, it begins to take on a life of its own, moving in multiple directions, thus creating a ripple effect of continual learning.
The bottom line is that blogs have the power to drive inclusive dialogue that goes beyond physical boundaries, national boundaries, and boundaries of status. In so doing, they make learning "real life."
The Importance of Comments
A compliment is nice, but it does not move a conversation forward. A comment extends a conversation. In each new class that I start blogging with, we spend one whole period talking about the difference between a compliment and a comment. I make my students read Vicki Davis's "How to Comment like a King (or Queen!)" (see sidebar below). We discuss the meaning of a comment, and whenever there is a good one left by someone, we talk about it in the classroom.
The problem is we are trying to fit a conversation into a space that was never designed to hold such conversations. Diane Quirk says it best in her comment last week.
To paraphrase Diane's comment, just a bit:
We are still trying to fit 21st-century conversations into 20th-century instruction without changing our pedagogy or recognizing the fact that the audience makes the difference. And that, my friends, is the problem with blogs. Thanks for the conversation!
by: Kevin Hogan
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