The Joy of Blogging

Blogging is an essential tool that promotes learning and instruction in schools.  Bringing blogs into classrooms supports 21st century learning by using a form of social media and technology and adapting it to provide for the educational needs of students. Teachers should use blogging as an instructional tool because:

-Students can connect with an audience that wouldn't be possible without blogging.

"I heard from someone in New Zealand," is not a likely statement from a traditional classroom as students don't generally have access to peers and teachers from around the world.(Davis & McGrail, 2009, np).    However, using blogs in the classroom makes this a possibility.  By blogging their thoughts and opinions, students can get a feel for how opinions from teachers and students around the world compare and contrast with their own.

-Student interest and self-directed learning is promoted 

Blogging allows students to receive feedback on their posts and then explore these comments.  Some students use the comments to fix spelling errors, some engage in lengthy discussion, and some take to the internet for further study.  "Not everyone was doing the same thing, but all were on a path to explore, experiment, and test their own understandings" (Davis & McGrail, 2009, np). 

-Students can develop their own unique voice

Blogs offer students an outlet to develop and use their own voice.  Students are able to express their thoughts and opinions in a much more efficient manner than in a typical essay. And as students developed this voice, " they began to move from peripheral to full participation," by controlling their blogging experience as they desire feedback on their own opinions and offer feedback to the opinions of others (Davis & McGrail, 2009, np). 

The following image serves to summarize the idea of using student blogging as an instructional tool.  The image shows a teacher explaining a portion of a blog to a student.  While student blogs are helpful for the previous reasons, they also help as a teacher can roam around the classroom and provide individual instruction as necessary to help each student to the best of his/her ability.

Student Blog Training by Project Exploration

Are you interested in have your students create their own blogs in your class?  If so, check out Kidblog.  This site gives you a place to set up your student blogs and control the access to them in order to promote safe and quality blogging.    

Reference List

Davis, A. P., & McGrail, E. (2009). The joy of blogging.Educational Leadership, 66(6), 74-77. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/The-Joy-of-Blogging.aspx

Project Exploration. (Photographer). (2011, June 27). Student Blog Training  [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/projectexploration/5926200875/

Hi, My Name Is...

My name is Nic Rush and I am from Columbus, Ohio.  I would like to teach social studies in grades 7-12.  I do not have much of a preference as to which age I teach, but I would be more interested in teaching United States Government.  I think that technology should be used in schools because of the advantages that it provides to students in this day and age.  Students are at much more of an advantage when technology is used in the proper way as compared to students of the past.  As Virginia Heffernan says, "We can't keep ignoring the formidable cognitive skills they're developing on their own" (Education Needs a Digital Upgrade).

The following video shows several ways that technology could be used in classrooms.  The video touches on a few ideas that are specific for Social Studies courses.

I find this image to capture the essence of student learning in the 21st century:

  In my opinion, some of the most important aspects are:

• Information- a student must be provided with information to foster the growth of ideas.  How this information is presented can be the difference between a student actively participating or sitting in the back of the room playing cell phone games.

• Technology- it's extremely important to use a variety of media to promote student growth.  Could a classroom be functional with limited technology?  Would it really spark student interest?  We've all been in that class where the professor lectures for an hour; we take down notes, and then regurgitate it on a test.  That might be an easy A for some, but are you really getting anything out of it?  

• Communication- communication is huge to the learning process.  Whether it's a teacher being available to field questions after class or students using Twitter to interact and answer open ended classroom questions, communication is vital to promote the most efficient learning.

Need help finding more ways to incorporate technology in your Social Studies classroom?  From using Skype to communicate with people on the other side of the world to blogging about textbook readings, Sara Bernard gives us some insight in her Edutopia article.