Jun 24 2009
How would I use blogs in the classroom?
I like the collaborative aspect of blogs, the way people can talk back and forth via comments, and I did use that last year with my 8th grade (see First Reflection, below). I’m trying to figure out how to set up blogs for my students in other ways, too. But since I need to read what they write before they publish it to the world (my administrators’ requirement), I need more structure than would be needed for older students (high school, college, adult).
Logistics
So I’m looking for a different platform. Edublogs permits mediation of comments (meaning I can read student comments to my blog before the comments are published) but setting up all the students took at lot more time and effort than I would like. I’m checking into Moodle, which I am learning about in another course (E-Learning for Educators). I want my students to be able to use collaboration tools like blogs and wikis, but without having to go through all the work setting up accounts for various platforms (and it is considerable, especially since many don’t have email) for what will probably be 100-120 students this coming year.
Actually using blogs
I want to continue to use the discussion blog I created last year, but use it all throughout the year. And I want to use it with both 7th and 8th graders next year. There are so many times that we want to talk more about a topic, but run out of time. Or I’d like to give students a chance to be more contemplative in their discussions.
Or I’d like students to use blogs as another platform for an existing project – two-way journals; pairs of students read the same book and journal back and forth about it. Wouldn’t a blog be a great vehicle for that discussion? And if there were 3 students reading the same book, the logistics of sharing their writing would be so much easier. Heck, the logistics between two would be easier – at least there would be fewer papers for students to lose (their second favorite activity after talking with their friends :>).
