Since we just finished spending a lot of time talking about blogging with students and the technical details of how to setup blogs, I thought I would include one more comment about why you might consider blogging with students. This really isn't anything different than some of the "why blog" posts I directed you to before, but just another concise quote from Will Richardson (education blogging guru) that I thought might resonate with some of you:
"The other day in Rochester, during my "Blogging the Verb" presentation, someone asked "what do I say to my administrators when they ask why we should have kids blog?" My answer was that blogging is work, that it's an intellectual exercise that requires deep reading, critical thinking, synthesis of ideas, and well-organized, clear and correct writing that is built upon links and connections. "
http://www.weblogg-ed.com/2005/10/16#a4090
I would have to agree. Tonight I posted a question on my class blog asking the students to debate the constitutionality of torture as a tool in the war on terror. The first student who responded did so by citing two quotes from Articles of the U.S. Constitution, and then proceeded to critique the constitutionality of torture. As we all know, in-class discussions are so fast-paced and often become so intense that scholarly evidence is not presented to support positions, particularly when the topic relates to a still-developing current events story. I like the fact that blogs encourage critical, rationally thought-out discussions.
ReplyDeleteI think that blogging does all of that, but even more amazing to me is that it allows for a greater interaction between the students in the class. Where students before would sumbit their written responses to the teacher and the teacher would respond back to the individual student, now it is possible for the entire class to share in the learning and discussion.
ReplyDeleteI like this quote, and agree that blogging has the potential to do all these things. As with anything else in education, though, success depends on the teacher and the expectations put upon the students.
ReplyDeleteA couple of interesting posts from Anne's Class Blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://annesmith9h.blogspot.com/2005/10/sieve-and-sand.html - especially the third comment down from Ana.
http://annesmith9h.blogspot.com/2005/10/die-beatty-die.html - interesting use of quotes by students to debate the point.
Amanda, how cool that your students added support for their ideas. Did you require this? Do you think it would be important on some questions to ask students to do this to get to that level of critical thinking with all students?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if any of our community is paying attention, but somebody noticed the AHS Daily Announcement blog - http://cscwteam.blogspot.com/2005/10/some-high-schools-teach-blogging-and.html
ReplyDeleteMichele - I told the students that backing up their statements with evidence is preferred, although the blog is just optional right now, so I am not really setting down rules. So far the students are pleasantly surprising me, and as a first step I am happy with the results. Perhaps as I get more involved in blogging this will change, but for now I just want the kids to get excited about the topics.
ReplyDeletePS - Your personal blog is great! The pictures are perfect and you have just been added to my list of superwomen!