Amanda's Abstractions: Blogging and Teaching

I believe that there are many possibly practical applications of "blogging," especially in Language Arts. While in high school, I had the opportunity to participate in debates. These activities took place in English class, stretching across breaks, days, and sometimes even weeks. It was an enjoyable and educational experience but, on a whole, not overly cohesive or effective. The problem was time, a 45 minute class does not provide enough time to form teams, discuss arguments and defenses, and finish a debate. Often people would be present one day and absent the next, creating imbalanced teams and inconsistencies. Blogging would provide a cohesive way for all students to express themselves, even those who are not comfortable addressing the class. Students would be given the chance to think through their arguments without being inflamed by the heat of the moment. The class could then discuss the overall process of debating, what they learned, how they came to personal conclusions about the subject and their general opinion of the debating protocol.

Before a teacher would be able to involve their class in an activity like blogging, there would need to be some ground work done. The students need to be made aware of the open ended nature of blogging. Rules need to be in place about appropriate use of a class blog, limiting personal information, and respecting the atmosphere of the online classroom. Also before a teacher can begin an activity like this he or she needs to know the students. If half of the class brings their own laptops to school while a large number of the students are from disadvantaged homes, without computers, this assignment may need to be modified. Teachers also need to know all of the ins and outs of the program that they are choosing to use so they can properly instruct the students.

Although this is my first experience with blogging I do believe that it can have application in the classroom. It may not be my first intuition, but seems to be a relatively easy way to integrate technology into the regular curriculum without taking away from the basic required skills such as communication, cooperation, language and literacy.