'Blogging with Students'

• 
  
  Hello fellow bloggers, this week I have discovered a thing or two about the communication tool of blogging. Being that this is new to me, I firstly needed to research others’ points of view to the benefits and possible complications of this tool. Following this research I was able to form a personal viewpoint of how this tool can benefit the learning within a classroom.
  
  As a pre-service teacher I am certainly interested in opening the communication barriers within my classroom, so is this the way to go about it? Here I have posted my thoughts on some of the strategies as to how blogging can be incorporated into the classroom.
  
• Students’ can read up on school/classroom information for example a weekly newsletter.
• Blogging can be used as a reading discussion and book reviews.
• Interesting news reports can be posted where students’ can respond with their thoughts and ideas on the topic which can ideally be linked to their current unit of work.
• Blogging can be used to enhance communication and promote self/peer reflections and feedback.
• Promote etiquette of formal writing.
• Encourage students to post their ideas for topic choices of study and as a class decide scaffold their own learning.
• Individualise student blogs where student’s progress can be discussed and monitored by the teacher.
• Students can post assignments on their blog and share ideas with other students’.
  
  Another positive side to blogging is the enjoyment received by the students’. The principal at the Institute of St. Joseph in Quebec City referred blogging as the ‘Virtual extension of the classroom’. (Downes, S. 2004). A study, as carried out by Stephen Downes who is a researcher with the E-Learning Research Group in Canada, quoted a student’s view on blogging to enhance learning. The fifth grade student said: 'The blogs give us a chance to communicate between us and motivate us to write more'. (Downes, S. 2004). This student also pointed out that ‘by reading other peers’ comments, we can know our own weaknesses and strengths’.
  
  This is a valuable comment and this communication would not just be between the students’ but also between the teacher and the students and the students’ and the school community. It is of my opinion that this tool be of most benefit as a communication and reflective tool at the same time increasing the students’ enjoyment of learning.
  
  There will however, be some possible downfalls to implementing a tool such as blogging into the classroom. These are my findings:

• Not all students have access to a computer at home.
• Well planned and explicit teaching would be needed to scaffold the teachers expectations.
• Time efficiency.
• Security and privacy of individual’s work may be jeopardised if the system is not secure.
• Mixing schoolwork and social conversations by blogging may reduce the focus of the topic.
  
  So after more consideration I have arrived at a few of my own questions in reference to blogging in the classroom. I am interested to see how many more students will complete their homework by blogging rather than the conventional method of the pen and paper? Also where will the teacher find time to deliver such strategies into our curriculum? And if any one knows, I am keen to know how many schools have blogging as a tool within their school?