I found a great article on blogging within the classroom in Education Digest. This article set a scene of a seventh grade science classroom and described three students in the classroom. One was learning English, another had a low reading level, and another was labeled as gifted. Through a classroom blog, the teacher was able to meet each student's specific needs. According to the article, "Blogs expand instructional time by providing teachers with a user-friendly online format to reinforce strategies, introduce new topics and concepts, review important class points, review for tests, and provide enrichment." The student who is learning English as well as new science terms can receive extra practice; the student with a low reading level can access help on vocabulary and comprehension; the advanced student can find links to more in-depth information.
I never realized blogging could be so useful in a classroom setting; I always viewed it as a social thing. Now I see just how much it can enhance teaching and learning. I think blogging is valuable in that it will help to students to better remember and understand what they were taught during the school day. I also think that, like the article discussed, blogging can help teachers meet individual needs. This is very difficult in the traditional classroom. A teacher cannot constantly explain things that may have been misunderstood by only a few students, forcing the other students listen to the same lesson twice. In the same way, a teacher cannot take the entire class into more challenging studies. With blogging, however, this can be achieved.
Blogging is a fairly new concept, especially in education. I think a lot of time needs to be devoted to planning these online lessons and much evaluation should be done to see how they can be improved to ensure the greatest success for students.
To read this article go to
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.7
4 comments:
I agree with how much a class blog can benefit the students. A blog allows for students to post their questions and the teacher can respond. A teacher may also post reviews and practice problem for an upcoming quiz or test. Blogs also help students keep up with thir work. For example, if they are absent to class, the taecher may post the homework for that day.
I really liked this article you picked because it shows first hand how blogs are being used to benefit students. I think that it is a good technique for students to help each other since they can relate on better terms.
Also I agree with you when you talked about these blogs giving students more practice and individual help. I think it will also help them gain more responsiblity by posting things on their own and getting more involved in their learning!
I agree with your statement how blogging is a good idea for teachers and students to use instead of going over assignment twice when a student doesn't understand something. Blogs can also be used for class discussion because some students might be too shy to talk in class so they will feel more comfortable doing it online.
I agree that blogging helps students with special needs and to be honest I never even thought about it helping individuals but that is a good point. I too only saw blogging as a social thing until now but I do agree that it is a good idea to implement it into the classroom
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