Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Benifits of Blogging



My blog would be used for a high school  college prep biology course.  I would use the blog for extra reinforcement of class material for students to for analyze topics discussed in class.  I would begin my blog at the class level in which students can communicate with their peers.

I find the most beneficial way to incorporate a blog in to my class is for communication with parents and students.  I would be able to post information regarding class announcements, testes, quizzes, projects, and up coming class and science events.  It would also be a place where I can incorporate current events to encourage students to read about science in the news.  The blog would provide parents with information about the course and allow them to know what is going on in the class.  I would also incorporate pictures of class activities, projects, and samples of students work that students have completed in class.  It would provide parents evidence of students learning and success in the class. 

As a teacher I have never incorporated blogging into my lessons.  However, I feel that incorporating blogs into my classroom can have many beneficial advantages for students.  Blogs would provide students an online cooperative group in which they can discuss biology topics.  I would be able to provide students with a prompt in which they would be able to respond to.  In addition, responding to me the prompt they can also read other classmates post and respond to them.  It would provide students with the opportunity to collaborate with classmates outside of class (Richardson, 2010). 


Reference

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web 
tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

3 comments:

  1. Nicole,
    I think that using blogs as a way to communicate to both parents and students is very beneficial. It not only gives parents the opportunity to view what their student is learning or doing while in your classroom, but it also gives students the chance to monitor their own learning. Additionally, using blogs to facilitate class discussions allows students to work with one another and extend their knowledge on class content. With the use of blogs, however, I do believe that there is a potential challenge that any teacher can face. Typically when students post online they do not always follow proper writing etiquette. As a result, students’ writings often involve informal, grammatically incorrect, fragmented or incomplete sentences that can cause misunderstandings in any person who views their text. To avoid any miscommunication among the class and instead foster meaningful dialogue, I would recommend that you discuss with your students what proper blogging etiquette entails while also giving them an opportunity to view professional blogs that model good blogging. Furthermore, by commenting on your students’ responses, you can yourself serve as a model for what effective blogging necessitates (Richardson, 2010)

    -Irene

    References
    Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Irene,

      That is a very good idea. In my class before I had student start blogging I would have a blogging etiquette lesson. I would want students to know that their information they post is being publish electronically that many people would be able to see. I would also stress the importance of their writing skills, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Similarly, as Kathy Martin (Laureate, 2014) in the video Spotlight on technology demonstrated in her class. I have noticed that students often write as they text and that will be a habit that they will have to change.

      Nicole

      Reference

      Laureate Education (Producer). (2014) Spotlight on technology: Blogging in the classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

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  2. Nicole,
    I am glad that you are going to have a blogging etiquette lesson for you students. I think that this lesson will greatly benefit your class and make them more aware of what effective communication entails. Students are so used to writing in fragmented sentences via text and email. As a result, In order for effective communication to take place students need to follow proper etiquette rules in their writing.
    -Irene

    ReplyDelete