Uses for Blogging in the Classroom

This is my first-ever blog. In my research, I have found many educational uses for blogging. As the computer and Internet have become the foremost in communication, it would be assumed that the uses in education are exponential. Teachers are using blogging for lessons. Students are using blogs for research. Teachers and students are using blogs for communication.  One key use for blogging seen in many of the site is for pen pal type messages. A classroom in America could be learning about the holocaust and would be able to blogs with students in Poland about the same subject. This allows for a great and quick communication that could never have existed without this type of technology. What educators seem to like most is that blogging is a way to encourage students to become more proactive in their writing. Blogging fosters a community outside the traditional classroom to allow students and teachers to interact with not only each other, but with others they may never have known existed.

Here are a few sites that discuss the use of blogs in education:

The site, http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/05/blogging-in-and-out-of-the-classroom/, titled “Emergent Internet Technologies for Education”, discusses the use of blogging in coursework for the teacher and the student. The site provides links to five different examples of how blogging is used in different disciplines in the classroom. It also provides seven strategies on how to incorporate blogging into the classroom: 1) post a homework question 2) start a discussion 3) invite outsiders to comment on student work 4) have students post discussion questions for tomorrow’s class 5) have students post their notes for the day 6) post progress reports on team projects 7) have students create their own blogs for any independent study.

The web page, http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/pointersclickers/2003_05/page3.asp discusses the use of using blogging for an online learning community. This is an article written by Dr. Ray Schroeder, the director of The Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Schroder discusses the benefits of using blogs, especially for the ability to use a Site Meter.

The site, http://media.www.thespartandaily.com/media/storage/paper852/news/2006/02/23/News/Blogs.Used.For.Education-1625875.shtml, “Blogs Used for Education,” an article by Jill Rae Seib, describes many uses for blogs used in education. It also describes the many positive aspects of using blogs as a supplement; such as it can create a sense of community outside of the classroom.

In the New York Times, Jeffrey Selingo wrote the article, “In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards,”  http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/technology/in-the-classroom-web-logs-are-the-new-bulletin-boards.html.  This article discusses the way certain elementary school teachers have successfully used blogging in the classroom as a means for discussion and journal writing requirements.  Another great use for blogging, as is discussed, is the fact that education does not have to stop in the classroom; students can continue to add to or learn from the blogs at home or anywhere outside of the four walls.

There is a great article, “Educational Blogging”, by Stephen Downs, http://www.masscue.org/publications/archive/educational_blogging.pdf, that begins by discussing blogging from a student’s perspective. There is a discussion of five uses for blogging in the classroom: 1) use blogs to replace classroom web page 2) instructors can link items relevant to the course 3) used for organization of in-class discussion 4) organize class seminars or readings 5) students can write blogs for class grades.

Will Richardson states about blogging, “This [the blogging process] just seems to me to be closer to the way we learn outside of school, and I don’t see those things happening anywhere in traditional education.” Since much of a student’s learning is done outside of the classroom, educators who have previously shied away from integrating technology have various resources to finally integrate. The world of education is not confined onto the classroom box. The world of education is endless. Educators can use blogging for myriad of activities, from discussing a field trip, to researching any number of topics. The idea of integrating blogging into anything from homework to classroom discussions will help to reach some students who just do not know how to work in a traditional classroom setting, when they have been raised using only technology.