Blogs
1.
According to the website www.dictionary.com, a blog is “a website
containing a writer’s or group of writer’s own experiences, observations,
opinions, etc. and often having images and links to other websites”. Blog users
can customize the format by which they express their opinions on topics of
their choosing. One of the affordances of blogs versus traditional websites is
that blogs allow a platform for individuals to express their opinions and share
those opinions worldwide through the internet. Traditional websites contain
information on a select topic or set of topics, but do not usually offer
individuals the chance to discuss their opinions on the information presented.
If websites do offer places to express opinions, this is known as a “message
board”. According to Wikipedia, a
“message board or internet forum is an online discussion site where people can
hold conversations in the form of posted messages”. While message boards allow
users to express their opinions, users are often restricted to a specific topic
or topics. In addition, other users are allowed to participate in the
discussion on message boards, while blogs usually just contain the opinions of
the blog author or authors. Vlogs and Glogs are websites similar to blogs but
containing different forms of content. A
glog or “graphics blog” is like a blog, but contains the users opinions in the
form of graphics or illustrations. “Video blogs” or vlogs allow users to
express their opinions in video instead of written text like traditional blogs.
One of the most well known examples of a vlog is YouTube.
When I first began looking at options for creating my blog site, I looked
at a few different free sites including Blogger, Wordpress, Weebly, Blog.com,
Tumblr. These were all sites that I frequently found as highly recommended. I
have had a bit of experience using Blogger in my previous course, but that was
the first time that I had ever tried to create a blog. Therefore, I was
interested in seeing what these other sites had to offer. I am sure that both Tumblr and Wordpress are
great sites, but they did not seem as user friendly to me. Blog.com is one that
I really liked because it seemed very easy to use and had many interesting
features such as: the ability to establish multi-author blogs, the use of a
variety of themes, the ability to incorporate widgets and share with social
networks, etc. I really liked some of the features on Weebly as well and I
think that it might be a good site to use if I want to create a website in the
future. Ultimately, I decided to use Blogger again to create this blog, because
I am somewhat familiar with the format and the features from previous use and I
like the fact that it is connected to other Google features.
2.
When considering possible lessons that I could
design using blogs, I would like to further discuss the idea of the world
geography lesson that I mentioned in a previous post, using the TPACK model to
identify the different aspects of the lesson. I would first begin the lesson by assessing my
students’ prior knowledge of world geography and discussing that basic knowledge
with the class. Based upon that assessment and discussion, students would be
assigned different world countries to research. They would be required to use
various resources to research their assigned country. Students would then
present their findings by constructing a travel blog page that contains
specific information aimed at informing the reader, as well as persuading them
to want to visit that particular country.
Content- The main objective
that I envision for this world geography lesson would be for the students to “develop”
a greater understanding of different countries of the world through researching
and “constructing” their own travel blogs that contain information aimed at persuading
individuals to visit each student’s assigned country. I believe that this would
fall under the “creating” level of the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.
Pedagogy- When it comes to
pedagogical stances, I feel that this lesson would best support a constructivist
learning theory. The website www.thirteen.org
describes the concept of constructivism in the following way.
“Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on
observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people
construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through
experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. In the
classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of
different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means
encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem
solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what
they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure
she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity
to address them and then build on them."
By having students conduct their own research and create a blog based on
that research, they are actively “constructing” new knowledge while building
upon previous knowledge. This is a student centered activity where the students
can strengthen their current understanding and develop new understanding through
research and guidance from the teacher.
Technology- One of the
affordances of the use of blogs in this lesson would be that students that are normally
more reserved and less likely to verbally express opinions or want to present
information in front of their peers would be able to express their views and
creativity without the pressure that often accompanies oral presentations. In addition, the travel blogs could be shared
with other individuals like parents, more easily than traditional posters or
written reports. The use of blogs within this lesson allows students a “creative”
way to merge their existing knowledge of world geography with the knowledge
that they “construct” from their research and interpretation of the information,
ultimately helping them to “develop” a better understanding of the world in
which they live.
3.
Another way that I can imagine using a blog in
the learning environment might be to construct a blog for teachers of certain
subject areas to share idea, lessons, resources, and general thoughts about the
subjects that they teach. In doing my own research, I have come across numerous
blogs that were created for this purpose. I can see many affordances to creating
a blog for this purpose within a school district. Not only would it allow
teachers in specific subjects to share their information and ideas amongst
their colleagues, but it would also allow instructors for those subject areas
to better ensure that the lessons taught at each grade level are streamlined
with the desired objectives for that grade. In addition, blogs could be a good
format for teachers to be able to communicate assignments to teachers and
parents.
4.
One obstacle that I can see in using blogs in an
educational environment would be the fact that it would be difficult to monitor
the content that is posted onto the blog site. In a school environment,
especially when students are involved, it is extremely important that the
content that is presented is appropriate. For that reason, it would be
necessary to ensure that the content of blogs being used in as school district,
whether by students or instructors, be monitored. Another potential issue that
I wonder about in regards to having students submit assignments through the use
of blogs is the fact that in rural areas/ school districts like where I live,
there are a few obstacles that might prevent the effective use of this
technology. One of the obstacles is the fact that many of the students cannot
afford to have computers or internet service at home or live in an area where
internet service is not available. Also, schools do not have the budget to
issue computers to the students to use outside of school. Essentially, access
to blogs outside of school might not be feasible for all of the students due to
limited resources. I know that this is
not the case in every school or learning environment, but it is still something
that I would have to consider when deciding whether or not the use of blogging
would work for the students that I work with.
In spite of these obstacles, I can see how
blogs can be a very useful tool within a classroom or school setting because
they allow personal opinions and information to be shared in a unique way. Blogs
can provide individuals who are normally reserved and shy away from verbally
sharing their opinions, a less intimidating way to share their thoughts. In
addition, students can submit their assignments at any time, as long as they
have internet access, thus lessening the chance that students will forget
assignments at home and fail to submit them. Also, having the blogs available
online would allow the projects to be viewed by others more easily. Not only the could the classroom students and
teacher view the work, but parents, other teachers and students could also view
the completed blogs online if the classroom teacher decided to share the
information.
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