Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Blogs, the big thing now
Blogs are all the rave on the internet at the moment, and for good reason. Blogs give users an opportunity to express their feelings on specific matters, usually extremely passionately, and people can find them by simply searching for a subject. Want to know more about the Pittsburgh Steelers? There's only about 150 million blogs about the team on the internet, many in several different languages. Blogs fill a niche, allowing the user to talk specifically about one topic, or can be much more broad — encompassing different stratospheres of thought. Blogs are making the print newspaper obsolete, why search through pages of things you don't care about when you can instead simply subscribe to a blog, and discuss it with others who read. Comments are the other unique aspect of blogging. It gives readers an opportunity to respond immediately to posts, creating further dialogs and making the reader feel as though they are part of the writing process. Blogging is also being condensed as simple "twittering" allowing readers of blogs to keep up with quick posts by the writers as their moods change, something pressing takes place or if they just don't have the time to make a longer post. Blogs have changed the landscape of the net, giving opinions in quick, succinct fashion and allowing "surfers" an opportunity to find their subjects at breakneck speed. Blogging can be fun, and it doesn't have restrictions. Want to swear? Go for it. Want to cry? Let it rip. Want to write as long as you want? Type your little heart out. Most bloggers put their heart into all their posts, passionately reporting on subjects that matter to many. More are finding out about certain blogs as they are linked to many different Web sites, making blogs easy to find and just as easy to use.
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Since you are working with young learners, in what way do you see that you can use some of the features you described with your students and what kinds of thinking might be promoted?
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ReplyDeleteVery insightful Mrs. Say. :) Do you think you'd every use blogs with your class? I could see it being useful and energizing writing. It could be a different way to do journaling, and it would be authentic. What problems do you think the kids would have with it?
ReplyDeleteI would like to try and implement blogging into my classroom. That would be something they could do from home or when we are in the computer lab. We could have a classroom discussion about what we have been learning about. That way, more students might respond to the questions that are posed.
ReplyDeleteStudents could also do a short summary of a book that they have read and could have others comment on it or work on solving math problems and discussing the steps to do so. This would be a great way to get students to interact.
Some students may have difficulty putting their thoughts into writing, and some may have a difficult time even accessing the blog at home since some may not have Internet. Since you can see other's blogs, it might hinder creativity from other students. They will just essentially "copy" other student's thoughts.
As we all know, it is never a good teaching strategy to just jump right and start having students using the technology. What might your scaffolding design plan look like in order to prepare your young learners to use blogs?
ReplyDeleteBefore beginning you would have to model what you want in order for students to be successful at blogging. Some of the students aren't even use to working with a computer. Basis computer skills would need to be introduced first. I think using blogs with younger students would be harder and take more time. It might be easier to work as a whole class. What are some activities that cold be done with second graders?
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