Blogging

Well this is my first real professional blog on my ‘Yellow Brick Road to a Teaching Career’. So far, discovering blogs, RSS Aggregators and Wiki has been an extremely time consuming but eye opening experience. Week four especially has shocked me. I realise that I don’t know as much about the internet as I thought I did.

The idea of using blogs for many purposes is now very exciting to me, especially the idea of utilising a blog for further student development.

Students would be able to gain access to my blog for the purpose of their own continual learning. They may have been particularly interested in a topic that has been discussed in the classroom and are eager to know more about it. I could place further reading, video links or even extra activities for the student to complete.

Students themselves may create their own blog as an online journal. In a study conducted by Barry Bachenheimer, director of instructional services for Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools in New Jersey (cited in Ramaswmi 2008), the use of blogging as a journal can improve the writing skills of students as they are required to write more frequently and respond to fellow student comments.

What has passed my mind recently however is the idea that the promotion of utilising blogs in the classroom may also, if not managed appropriately, create another outlet for potential bullies. As stated by Kirby and Kaillio (2007, p. 17) ‘the content of blogs is unpredictable and potentially offensive or threatening’. In creating journal blogs for use in the classroom, it will be critical that they are created with the ability to have teacher/parent monitoring.

Apart from blogging for the purpose of student learning, it is also a useful tool for parents to keep up to date with classroom activities, projects and important news. The blog would also allow parents to communicate with the teacher.

Finally, the use of a blog for my own professional development as a teacher is what especially interests me. I have never kept a handwritten journal before but the idea of a journal that others can read and make comments on is really exciting. The idea that I can post my own thoughts, ideas, resources, and concerns, and have others make comments providing further ideas, resources, potential websites to look at, means my own learning and development can occur every day.

Reference List

Ramaswami, R 2008, ‘The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too)’, T.H.E. Journal, vol. 35, no. 11, pp. 21-25, (online Ebscohost)

Kirby, E & Kaillio, B 2007, ‘Student Blogs Mark a New Frontier for School Discipline’, Education Digest, vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 16-23, (online Ebscohost)