For my first blog post for my Educational Technology course at MSU, I have been asked to examine the differences between blogs and traditional web pages.
In my experience with my own classroom web page I have found that it is a very useful way to maintain a consistent resource for students and parents to find class information. However, to update the web page, although I use a very user-friendly site (weebly.com), it still takes mutiple steps and time to really make any changes to the site. With use, it has become a quicker process for me, but nothing is quite as quick as a blog. Blogs allow the user to instantly update whatever message they are striving to get across and to really have some back and forth communication with the readers. I think Blogger, inparticular, has made the process of becoming an immediate web author so easy that it can be accessed by just about anyone, regardless of how familiar they are with technology. This is great when it comes to education because it means that students could have a quick outlet to become actual "published" authors, without necessarily needing to be tech-saavy. Such a thing could be a great tool for a classroom because it allows students to find an authentic reason for writing when they have a real audience who could be reading. Web pages are great for getting basic information and documents out, but blogs create a much less formal space where writers and readers can constantly share updated information with just the click of a mouse!
Great post! Another plus, is that students can comment on the posts/work of their classmates. What a wonderful peer editing tool. How do you see yourself using blogs with your Language Arts students?
ReplyDeleteThanks! I've used blogs a couple times with my kids in two different ways. The main way that I use them is for their literature circle discussions. I created a blog and post some opinion based questions about the different novels being read in my class. Students then comment on whichever post has to do with their book. They also have to ask a question and answer another student's question. This way they get to communicate with students in other classes who are reading the same book.
ReplyDeleteThe other way I've used blogs in class is I've had students create their own blog from the perspective of a character in their novel. They create "diary" blog entries using the voice of the character.
I'd like to have all of my students create their own blogs and write on them weekly, but with 115 students I'm not sure how I would monitor all of them weekly for appropriateness (both from some of the more "active" students and from the general public).