Blogs are a new medium for communication. Society and educators are just now beginning to understand the ways in which blogs can be used to facilitate communication, especially with regards to reflection and literacy. For this assignment, please review the links provided in the class agenda. After reviewing the information in the links, respond to the following by posting a comment:
After reviewing what others have done with blogs and learning more about blogs, how might blogs be adopted within your own locus of control. In other words, explain to us how the use of blogs might facilitate communication in an arena which you teach or which you plan to teach in the future. Be specific and provide a basis for your use of the tool. Answer with at least two cogent, appropriately written (grammar, spelling, etc.) paragraphs.
[Please complete this response by 5.26.07 (Saturday)]
In addition, read through some of the comments posted by your classmates. Pick one and respond with your own reaction. One simple paragraph describing (a) what you liked about the approach and (b) any suggestions you have for modifications or additions. [Please complete this response by 5.27.07]
Please email me if you have questions.
posted by Dr. Mike at 2:07 PM
30 Comments:
As an instructional designer and project manager, I have the ability to create unique learning opportunities within the courses or curricula I design and manage. Pearson, like many other learning organizations, is finally looking closely at Web 2.0 technology such as blogs.
We are currently exploring the different ways and means to incorporate blogs into the learning environments we create to allow students more control and access over their own learning. We have found that blogs allow adult learners the opportunity to reflect on their learning while pulling in their experience and previous knowledge, both important tenets of adragogy. Furthermore, it allows students to develop a community of learners in a way that is organized and driven from their own initiative.
3:00 PM
Momi's thoughts
In teaching, I have found that my students use and know more about computers than they know they do. I think that in my arena of teaching, blogs can be a great way to get students to talk and use their Hawaiian language while being in their arena.
The Department of Education has what they call the GLO's. This is the General Learner Outcomes and one of those outcomes is that students will be be ethical users of technology. Now with that in mind, we need to get our students using and functioning with technology. This means that they need as much exposure. Blogging is one way in which students can be able to express themselves, communicate with others, and also get help from an audience of their peers.
11:23 PM
I work at Hui Malama Learning Center who, among many of its services, provides SES tutoring services at public schools throughout the island of Maui. Each student in the SES tutoring program is approved by the DOE to receive a certain number of tutoring hours per school year. Hui Malama receives monthly tutoring reports from the tutors in order to track the progress and hours of each student. The tutors work independently of each other outside of the Hui Malama office therefore, communication is essential.
After reviewing what others have done with blogs, I feel a Hui Malama tutoring blog would be very beneficial to Hui Malama administrative staff and Hui Malama tutors. I envision a password-protected blog to be used by the Hui Malama administrators and all Hui Malama tutors to communicate current student cases, up-to-date tutoring hours, new students, and information that can be shared among tutors to help them in their work and to create a sense of community among the tutoring staff who do not work together and rarely get the opportunity to interact with each other. A tutoring blog would help Hui Malama administrators have up-to-date tutoring statistics (rather than waiting for the end of the month). In addition, tutors would have access to resources in other tutors.
12:42 AM
I am not currently in a teaching position. In thinking how a blog could be used for discussions on particular topics in my current UH Center administrative position, it did not seem to be a good fit. The same discussion topic would not be going on for extended time periods, and there would be a multitude of topics, so I think a bulletin board would probably serve my work purposes better, allowing many topics with individual threads.
However, I do see one current use that might lend itself very well to the blog format. I think perhaps it is the perfect way to communicate with my advisor regarding my Final Project. Rather than separate email messages, having all comments, questions, instructions, and replies in one place would provide easy reference for both of us. Additionally, it would be accessible easily from any computer and not stored in a particular computer's mail. Although this is true for WebCT mail as well, students lose access to previous WebCT courses, so all of previous semester's WebCT mail becomes unavailable. I think this may be a useful tool which I will suggest to my advisor and she what she thinks!
I found the setting for sending myself an email when someone posts a comment, and I'm sure there is also a place where a blog user can get on a mailing list (in this case a list of 1!) to have an email message sent with each new posting. That would increase the blog's usefulness by advising both my advisor and myself when the other has posted new information.
3:42 PM
Blogs, while new to me, are something I have read much about. I can see blogs being used in a course to comment on a topic. For instance, in place of regular response papers, a blog could be kept on development of the course, comments on assignments, comments on readings, etc.
I would think that you would need to set guidelines for the blog. Information would need to be verifiable. Same as you would in a paper. It seems that one of the major problems with blogs is that they are more like a diary or journal, than a research paper. Its hard to know what to believe. But if you use it as a response paper, with guiding questions, I can see its value. Quick turn around, thinking responses, etc.
8:19 PM
In response to Martha's comment, I like her approach to blogging as a way for students to communicate, share information and collaborate on course work. I have found the discussion feature of WebCT to be very beneficial in this way. It has served as a resource, a place to share ideas, and to work with other students.
I agree with Martha's concern that it is difficult to decipher information contained in a blog - what is true and what is not... One of the articles we read discussed the thought that blogs act as critical peer reviews. This is a concept that would be interesting to explore further.
2:08 PM
After reviewing the information and literature provided to us on blogging, I feel that there are several ways which I can use blogging within my locus of control. As a second grade teacher, I believe that blogging can be effectively used by students to replace their writing journals. Lucky am I that my school just bought a mobile lab for my class and one other teacher's classroom; I hope to actually try this out next year. Students can easily provide comments, suggestions, as well as edit the work of their peers through this technological medium.
Another way in which blogs could be used is for teacher reflection, mentoring and collaboration. If mentor teachers could take the time to help probationary teachers via blogs it would be a great step forward for the Hawaii DOE. Those less experienced would be able to post questions or simply vent their frustrations to other like-minded teachers. More the experienced teachers could offer their suggestions and help those in need. It would require less time and commitment than f2f meetings of the same sort and therefore might have more success than a traditional mentorship program.
7:54 PM
In response to Cheryl's post, I like her idea about tutors blogging to provide administrators with up-to-date statistics on the students. It would be an effective use of a blog for both parties and probably lessen the stress of these "monthly reports" for all involved. I'm sure most people would appreciate this approach.
You might want to consider using a separate blog for strictly-tutor communication. In this manner, administrators won't need to fish out the information they need for these monthly reports, and tutors might be able to communicate with one another more openly.
8:02 PM
BTW Dr. Mike, I just have to say that I'm digging the goatee. Stylin' man! Old picture or new?
8:05 PM
My goal is to enter the world of adult education and/or training within the corporate realm. I have been thinking back to our discussions in 603 about how people in employment (and many other) groups effectively learn and pass on information via communities of practice. In many situations where shift work is the norm, these communities may never interact face-to-face, and a valuable training and educational tool is not utilized. My idea for implementation is that a blog format would facilitate communication between these groups.
The on-line article, Scholars Who Blog, provided support for the appropriateness of the blog as a communication tool for employment situation as it is immediate and open to varying viewpoints and perspectives. However, the same article points out inadequacies of the tool, perhaps a three word sarcastic outburst is not helpful. The Wikipedia page also illuminated legal, ethical and social issues with a workplace blog. It is a reasonable expectation that office politics and social problems would make the cyber leap into a community of practice blog, thereby decreasing its effectiveness. This could lead to a My Space-like effect, including cyber bullying and harassment.
12:05 AM
In response to Martha:
I like your thoughts on guidelines for blogging in education. As it is a technological tool, there are currently guidelines in place for the use of technology on many educartional levels, but my take on your comment is that they need to be specifically applied to blogging.
I took this a bit further to consider a blog as a "print" medium, with all the ethical and legal maxims applicable to the print medium. Perhaps blogged material that is threatening or harassing, should be dealth with legally and ethically. Blogs need to be monitored in the education setting. I am thinking of secondary and higher education settings where social issues and academic pressures could led to misuse of blogs.
12:19 AM
I have always required my students to write daily reflections that were traditionally kept in a three ring binder. The use of binders created problems in collecting student work for review, as the binders eventually got very bulky. Because of this, collection of student work was not done very often and the feedback on their journal was not done in a timely manner. The use of blogs seems to be a perfect solution for student journaling where all of the students would not only be able to post their reflection but also benefit from the writings of their classmates. I have also used web logs when presenting professional development with teachers as a way for them to post questions that they might have about the content that was covered.
In my work with students from Alaska we have found weblogs to be a huge benefit for our students as they document their research and receive feedback from their teachers and science mentors. As I continue to work with students from distant communities I am finding that tools such as web logs and other Web 2.0 tools have tremendous value in facilitating communication and collaboration of student and teachers that do not have the ability to meet face to face.
12:33 AM
Now that my first posting has disappeared and I'm starting again, maybe we should talk about technical difficulties that may happen while blogging. I've actually dabbled in blogging with my students and was unsuccessful the first time, but I have not given up. I only had two responses, one of which was my own.
The teacher I am teaming with and I plan on using blogs next year in our classes. We've discussed using them for students to peer assess and journal and also thought about maybe using them as a way to communicate with parents. Through blogs we can address questions about our classes and also provide links for more information. I plan on using them in group work as well where students post their responses and then we talk about them as a class. The possibilities of using blogs in education really are infinite.
12:43 AM
I often find blogging to be a rather personal experience and I make many notes about the progresson of events in all facets of my life in reviewing them. I enjoy that friends are there to share some of those thoughts and ideas in the limited access I allow to this area of ideas but professionally speaking it is not a tool i have employed yet.
However, As someone who haas recently inherited a library whose systems appear to be without ryme or reason. I understand the value of being able to review someones thoughts and ideas as well as the bastion of knowledge it may represent in figuring out why things are the way they are.
Beyond the archive value of people thoughts and processes. In business and procedure I find that use of blogged information allows people to share thoughts in the sense of a ,"hive mindset". Please forgive the science fiction but the ability to see the individual thought input of each individual allows a person to see many new ideas and aspects on a subject they may not consider on their own.
1:36 AM
As a fifth grade educator for four years, I have seen students bring a variety of experiences and worldviews to the classroom. They have opinions on anything ranging from gender roles and racial profiling to which soda or professional sporting team is the best. In the majority of cases, they are regurgitating what they have seen, heard, and/or learned from their elders, peers, through observation, or any combination of the three. When asked to give rationale or evidence for what they believe, the most common answer is “just because”. I would like to use a blog as a tool for students to delve deeper and list evidence for their opinions or conclusions. Perhaps students could list their opinions and then have them confirmed or refuted by other students based on supporting evidence or lack thereof.
I envision students being able to state their opinions and conclusions on a blog with peer review. I would like to see students challenging each other to come up with substantiated conclusions. Instead of just saying that the Dodgers are better than the Yankees, include statistics that show the Yankees five games under .500 while the Dodgers are seven games over .500. Then students could follow that up by saying that the Dodgers win-loss record is even more impressive since 4 of the 5 teams in their division have records of .500 or better. Furthermore, only one of the five teams in the Yankees division has a winning record, so that makes their win-loss record even more pathetic since teams generally play division rivals more often than opponents outside their division. At any rate, students would need to state reasons why they held certain opinions and have them subjected to critical peer feedback on a blog. In my own locus of control, this could extend into the sciences where students need to state conclusions based on observation.
2:36 AM
In response to Steph's posting, I agree that using a blog to comment on student work in writing is a great way to encourage peer feedback. Another tool that you might want to consider is google docs. It allows for numerous peer edits from a number of individuals with comments all listed on the original document. An advantage over blogging would be to keep all the edits and comments on one document, rather than trying to read through all the strands only to read duplicate or perhaps even triplicate comments.
I would definitely like to be a part of a master-mentor teacher blog in which professionals could reflect on practice, share teaching techniques, etc. One of the ground rules to lay out in advance, to make the blog more effective, would be to require posters to focus on the original posting/issue. For example, if the original posting was on bullying in the classroom, a reply about improving Internet access would be unwelcomed. A new blog or strand could be created for that.
Lastly, I must agree that the chin whiskers are much more fitting than the clean shaven look for Dr. Menchaca. The Che Guevara look matches with his desire to work towards social justice. Que viva la revoluccion y la barbosa negra!
2:50 AM
In response to Alan, AKA, mobile education partners, I like the idea of using Blogs to replace three ring binders. I especially like your comment about students benefiting from the work of others. I think this is something teachers should think about as well. I don't think we share enough and blogging would be a great way to do so. Wouldn't it be great if most student work was turned in electronically? No more, "I gave it to you!"
10:28 PM
I intend to use the blog as the platform for the digital communication to occur. Allowing the students to enter their thoughts on the blog is a non-threatening way of developing writing skills. While the blogs will not be edited and corrected by the teacher, good examples will be discussed so that students build fluency in their writing skills. The blog that I have posted seek open ended discussion on Native Hawaiian Fishponds. My research for the Online Masters in Technology Program use the fishpond by my school as the platform for problem based learning. My students will be building a multimedia web site to share their findings with other interested parties. The blog will be added as a hyperlink. Once a month every month the students will visit the fishpond to complete a task. Each time they visit the pond they will write a reflection. It is an advantage to record in a blog because blogging allows for discourse from a wide variety of people with diverse political perspectives. It puts everyone on a level field from professors, lawyers, and politicians to everyday housewives. I have asked Clyde Tamaru of the U.H. Sea Grant Extension to serve as the expert. He has been the expert at the pond since 1996. I have asked Herb Lee to represent the community members as he is the president of the Waikalua Loko Preservation Society. I intend to involve the parents by assigning the students to interview their parents. If the parents do not have a computer at home the student will record it on paper. Then they will type in the information for their parent at school. I have to created a listserv of the facilitators associated with the pond. We will communicate online with other students who visit Waikalua Fishpond. I will email Hawaiian Immersion teachers from the outer islands so that they can assign their class respond to the blog. I will open it up to elementary students this coming fall. Right now I am trying it out on ETEC students so please make a comment. Mahalo, Lilinoe
http://fishpondsinhawaii.blogspot.com/
11:26 PM
Re: Steph's Comment
Another way in which blogs could be used is for teacher reflection, mentoring and collaboration. If mentor teachers could take the time to help probationary teachers via blogs it would be a great step forward for the Hawaii DOE.
I believe that F2F is needed when observing the probationary teacher. But the blog provides a place for reflection which is something that all teachers could use to document managerial techniques and best teacher practices. Sharing what works with your peers is a rewarding experience. As long as students' names are kept confidential.
11:52 PM
I also share the experience that Ellen has about students/teachers not posting on blogs. Students need to be constantly reminded to post to their blogs on a regular basis...its like trying to get them to do homework!
Several things that helped me to get students more involved in using blogs are:
1. Having the blog directly related and integrated into your curriculum...in other words its graded!
2. Give students prompts on what to write on the blogs.
3. Have students enter comments into the blog as groups.
4. Provide immediate timely feedback on student blog entries.
5. Establish class guideline for using blogs.
6. Don't allow anonymous comments.
BTW...my previous post was done under "Mobile Education Partners".
2:02 AM
In response to Alan's (aka Mobile Education Partners) post, when I taught 8th grade science, I also required comments/reflections, although mine were in a spiral notebook instead of the 3 ring binder. As much as I looked forward to Friday, I hated having to tote 6 periods of 25-30 notebooks home each weekend! I wish blogging had been an option. It would have made it more reasonable for me to correct as well as continuing to keep each student's work organized.
Additionally, I also like the buddy-blogging idea, where after you post you need to comment on your buddy's (possibly an assigned buddy) post. (Like this assignment, actually.) You have the added peer pressure to get your blog done, because you know an assigned peer audience is going to be reading it!
BTW, Robbie the Librarian... your "hive mind" analogy made perfect sense to me...of course being an avid Trek-y might have helped!
3:13 AM
Hmmm... Never considered myself a revolutionary!
12:22 PM
As of next year, I will be teaching a computer applications class and could definitely use blogs in the classroom. This is my first time using a blogger and have found to like it. I may use this as a getting to know you tool in my class. I think I could set up my students to create a blog about themselves with a required criteria. Maybe even a little mini autobiography lesson for the students to complete and then have them respond to each other.
I do know that students are already excellent bloggers. They use myspace and are just so ahead of their teachers. Although the grammar is not the best, they are very creative and express themselves very well while blogging.
I think blogs would be a great educational tool, but like any new thing, it has to be used properly in the classroom to be effective.
5:04 PM
In response to Momi's comment I think it is an excellent idea to use blogs for Hawaiian Language or any foreign language for that matter. Language is all about the communications and blogs to give that communication for all to see. I think that is an excellent idea.
I really think you could work this out with your class. Do you have the technology you need for these students or is this more of a dream like me who wish I had the technology in the classroom? I think you could even do some kind of mentorship with your upper classes as the tutors using blogs or something like that.
5:09 PM
I can totally relate to Marty Jean's comment about lugging home 25-30 notebooks! Blogging is a much more "portable" idea for reponse to writing. And in response to Ellen and Allan's comment about getting students to use new technology, the main thing is to make it mean something - not just something they have to do...
1:18 PM
In response to Shellie's first blog, I would agree that such work place blogs could be time bombs for both sides in regard to corporate culture and griping.
Perhaps a better approach to the use of blogs in the corporate workplace would be to create journal entries to reflect "A Day in the Life" that could be used for both company and job marketing. I think some creative approaches are available for blog use in the corporate world.
-Dan
4:19 PM
Alann's blog and his list of practicle steps to ensure participation was interesting to me. I think the practicality of requiring and grading blogs underscores the differences between pedagogy and andragogy. As I reflect on blogs, I see one of the biggest benefits, at least for adult education, in its similarity to user-driven, just in time learning (reflection). Obviously in elementary education, where education tends to be more of an ideology approach, required work makes a lot of sense. But in adult education, the use of blogs may need to take a more supplemental user-driven, just in time option.
-Dan
4:27 PM
In response to Stephanie:
I think that having the mobile lab and working with your second graders using blogs will help them to grow within technology. I think that is will help to make them as they say in DOE terms, "ethical users of technology".
One thing I would like to suggest in your comment about using blogs with the DOE amongst teachers for collaboration and what not, is to try it with you school. See if it works out or not. That might help with getting something going in a bigger arena like the DOE.
1:33 AM
When I first think of blogs being used in education I can't help but think it is a very "English heavy" area. In other words, I can see how blogs can help to keep kids' journals organize and to help them in writing skills. However, after thinking it out, math vocabulary is something that many of our students are missing now. They can look at the math problems and do it, but when it comes to thinking out the problem in words and explaining how to solve it using math vocabulary, they cannot bridge this "gap" between math and english.
I was thinking to have students take home constructed response questions. These questions require students to "think aloud" when solving a problem. After reviewing their answers a commentss can be posted as needed to help refine the students' responses.
12:00 AM
In response to Momi's thoughts:
I sometimes find it hard to cover the technology GLO at my school. Blogs would be an easy way of covering one aspect of technology. Great idea!
12:03 AM
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