Blogging
From TechHelp
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[edit] Introduction
There have been many descriptions for what blogging is and means. In it's simplest form a weblog or blog is a web site where it's content is authored by an individual or group of individuals. Commonly, a blog is a website where an individual writes about their topics of interest. In its basic form blogging is a space where people can easily create content on the web. Users need not know HTML code or any other code to post content on a blog. Blogging software is based on a server, but once it is set up people can create an account and then add their own content. One way to think of a blog is a two way street between the content creator, and their audience.
[edit] Blogging History
One noteworthy blog that brought blogging to the mainstream is Wonkette. During the 2004 Presidential election, 60 Minutes aired a report from Dan Rather on a letter regarding President Bush's military service. Wonkette blogged about the letter CBS had obtained, informing blog readers that it was a forgery. The immediate impact of this event was that blogging entered the mainstream public. Prior to blogging the mainstream news was owned by corporations, with blogging and the web now people can have some control over the news.
Another great example of blogging in the mainstream was the acceptance of bloggers at the Demorcatic Convention in Boston in 2004. Bloggers were welcomed to the convention the same way that the mainstream press was. The concept of freedom of the press has now moved to a different level with the ease of publishing on the web.
Wikipedia - Blogs Read the Wikipedia article on blogs.
[edit] Blogging in Education
Review some of the sample blogs below to see how some teachers are using blogs to build learning communities, improve interest in their content areas and enhance learning.
[edit] Learning Strategies
With Blogging, as with a lot technologies, the question always seems to be why should we be doing this? There are quite a few reasons why you may want to engage students in using a blog or similar tools. If you have additional ideas to share please feel free to go ahead and do that here.
[edit] Reading and Writing
The very nature of blogging lends itself to students becoming engaged in reading and writing. Blogging is not simply a online diary, it can be structured around activities that lends itself to using a blog. Imagine that you are having students work on a science project where they are researching the impact of humans on their local environment. They can begin to use their blog to document their research, pose questions, ask questions of their peers, and become engaged in the literacy of science.
At the same time perhaps the English teacher has students reading Judy Moody saves the world by Megan McDonald Peter Reynolds with younger students. Perhaps it is an older group of students where they are reading Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies by Jared M Diamond in their Social Studies class.
Both of these situations allow students to begin connecting what they are doing in separate classrooms. Allowing students to begin to see the interconnections between different disciplines.
[edit] Reflective Writing
Another possibility is to use blogging for a reflecting purpose. Since blogs can be organized by date and subject students can see how their ways of thinking have changed over time. Looking out on the web you will see some people that use their blog strictly for this purpose. Sure some of them may be computer geeks, but our students are now becoming more and more comfortable with computers, so the sense of blogging being geeky may only be for the older crowd.
[edit] Portfolio Opportunities
Student portfolios have been around for a long time. The benefit of students being able to have a collection of their work to share with prospective employers or colleges is a beneficial for their future. Companies no longer simply want a paper copy of a portfolio that they can look at during your interview. In today's world employers want to have a website of your work. This and the practice of Googling prospective employees has changed the entire hiring process.
Giving students an advantage of being able to show their work and progress as students, as well as giving them the ability to create a site of their own in the future is an indispensable skill. As a teacher imagine being able to see what a student, that is now sitting in your classroom on the first day of school, has done in prior classes. This coupled with Curriculum mapping could have a real impact on what it is we are truly teaching students.
