Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Using Blogs in the Classroom
I teach 3 sections of 9th grade world geography. One of the main purposes of my blog will be to provide students with a place to ask questions and to discuss class material. Using blogs enhances lessons by allowing the students to freely submit questions or comments without having to worry about their peers. This will allow for a better flow of information. This may also open up students in the physical classroom.
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I think that creating a place for students to leave comments and have discussions about your geography class is a great idea. Students are past the awkward middle school years, but a lot of 9th graders are still shy around classmates for whatever reasons. Students may be more likely to participate in a blog because they do not have to speak in front of their peers.
ReplyDeleteThe only precaution I would take would be to make sure students are trained to appropriately answer questions and also that they know what is appropriate to post. If they are allowed to ask questions on the blog, there will need to be strict guidelines to follow. Would the blog be graded? If a grade was attached, at least in the beginning training period, students may be more likely to take the blog seriously and then they could start to have a lot of fun with it.
Hi Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI agree that a blog is a good place for questions and discussions, especially for those students who are intimidated by their classmates.However, I think you should post questions, topics or link pertaining to the lessons to prompt the discussion and questions. Why? If the students are not directed, they will be engaged in frivolous discussions.By providing these things, some students may recognize some things that they do not understand and ask revelant questions and get into meaningful discussions.
Your students will really enjoy blogging.
ReplyDeleteRecently I explored the website http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/. My initial reaction to the website was that this is a great idea. One of surprises was that I had not heard of this. I could not find anything on the website that I really disagreed with. The implications of this framework would be numerous. First if we were to actually implemented this program it would change the way all of us taught. It would also change the attitudes of my students.
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