Blogs

A blog is a website that is formatted similarly to a journal where a person or group of people can share information or ideas with others. The blog owner is the main author on the blog that is sharing their thoughts or ideas. Each post will be about a different topic or idea. You can use different tags to sort posts by different topics. I have read a variety of different blogs and use them to help me learn new information that I may not have previously known or to read  about a topic in another person's perspective. Blogs are also a tool that can be used in education as they allow for students to respond to questions or topics from class, and they can provide a way for students to think critically about a specific learning task and share their understanding.

When I was researching various blogs, I have previously tested out Weebly and Wix and was quickly reminded that I did not find them user-friendly as some aspects are hard to understand, especially if intending to use them with elementary school children. I find blogger to be straightforward and user friendly even for younger students, as everything is laid out simply in an easy-to-navigate webpage. 

Blogs allow for students to work asynchronously so that they can be updated and completed as needed. Another nice feature of blogs is that you can see what time the post was made so you could see when it was completed if you wanted to assign a project with a set due date. One are that can make blogs challenging is when students each have their own blog and having to read a variety of posts, it is not initially easy to see other's posts, however you can either subscribe to their blog to receive updates in a newsfeed, or you can subscribe via an RSS feed to see posts from a variety of blogs that you are subscribed to, which allows you to keep up with a variety of blogs without having to go to each individual blog to see updates. 

A blog would be a great way to share a variety of ideas, such as a space to allow students who completed an experiment to write out and show the scientific method of the experiment from hypothesis to results, a way for students to reflect on the reading of a book for a literature circle, to complete a variety of expository and opinion writing pieces, as well as explaining how they solved math problems using a specific method. Another great feature is that you could opt to allow students to comment on posts, which would then provide peer reflection and give the author additional things to think about within their writing. Teachers could also provide feedback to students that can be beneficial to their learning. 

One example of using a blog for a project would be completing a literature circle discussion via technology.  

Use the TPACK Model to identify each aspect of the work:

Content: Using a blog would allow for students to understand how to submit responses to literature circle questions. This gives students an opportunity to share their thoughts on a virtual platform and provides a way for other students to have a discussion about the book that they are reading at the same time and to see if they are comprehending the text in a similar manner. 

Pedagogy: When first introducing this project, I would have to be very hands on in showing students how to create a blog post, explaining the rubric and modeling examples of appropriate responses, and how to provide a thoughtful discussion on the topic. I would weave this technology instruction in with topics that we were covering. For example, after reading a short story in class, I would have students practice responding to questions at first in their journal, and then transposing what they wrote over to a blog post. As they were learning how to use various tools from the blog platform, the additional practice would allow for them to have opportunities to learn how to set up their blog to respond to literature circle questions from the text Bud, Not Buddy.Once students have a handle on the technology aspect, students would be leading these posts and discussions and I would be a facilitator more so than the leader of the literature circles. This would allow for me to be able to scaffold and follow a greater release of responsibility to the students so that they can work independently on the assignment. When focusing on specific content for the literature circle, the teacher would need to have specific questions prepared so that the students could focus on character and plot development (TEKS 4.7) and these would have been previous concepts that we have been working on in an I do, We do, You do model-- starting with a short text for me to model responding to similar character and plot questions, to a longer except the students would work on responding to collaboratively, and with the literature circle being the opportunity to apply the skills that have been previously taught. 

Technology: Once again, initially it would take a lot of upfront explanation and direct teaching on how to use the technology for the project, but as students are more comfortable this would be a student led assignment that they would respond to each others blog posts and provide feedback and discussion for their literature circle. 

The initial setup of a blog would be challenging, as many students do not have much experience with using and navigating a blog. Some students may find it frustrating and may ask questions about how to use the site or to do specific tasks on the blog website. However, I feel that as students are comfortable with using it, the benefit outweighs the initial challenge because it would allow for students to observe how their classmates are thinking about a text more than they may be able to hear in a traditional classroom discussion, and it would provide opportunities for students to dive deep into comprehension and it allows the students to become comfortable with creating digital assignments and learning how to navigate various sites to respond to their peers, as this is a skill that they will need as they reach high school. Finally, it also provides an easier way for the teacher to keep track of student involvement and completion of assignments, as it will provide timestamps and dates of when various assignments were completed, and this makes an easier track record for a discussion than having an in person discussion-- it is easier to miss someone's participation when there is no physical evidence. Overall, a blog may be frustrating to set up, but once it is in use, it is a great tool in the classroom that will provide easier tracking of classroom involvement and the ability for students to learn new ways to submit assignments.