A Blog about Blogging...

With (limited) experience now under my belt, this is essentially a reflection about blogs and educational blogging. I should begin by indicating that by educational blogging, I am really referring to blogging that is scaffolded by a teacher with the aim of supporting/enhancing classroom learning. Clearly blogging and a host of other social media activities can also occur outside of the classroom and without any involvement by teachers.

To facilitate this reflection, I have started by completing a Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) thinking routine.

PMI Evaluating Potential of Blogs in the Teaching Context

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Plus	Minus	Interesting/Implications
setting up a blog is free blogs are easy to use and have a similar functionality to many of the word processing applications students already use regularly blogs can be edited empowers students giving them the ability to occupy roles not generally available in a ‘traditional’ classroom environment (e.g. author, editor, publisher, reviewer etc.) blogs are ‘instant’ and can reflect current events, recent activities etc. blogs provide a useful mechanism for teachers to deliver or disseminate information the self-paced nature of blogging offers students autonomy blogs enable students to work in interactive and collaborative ways, by linking to other web resources, images, videos etc. blogs are a great tool to engage with a range of learners (active, reflective, sensing, intuitive, visual, verbal, sequential and global) blogging allows students to understand the power of persuasive writing and helps them to find their ‘voice’ blogging is challenging and interesting, sparking interest and enthusiasm (also many students will be used to ‘having their say’ through other forms of digital social media) although less collaborative than some other web-based tools, students can comment on their own or other blogs and follow blogs of interest although the end product of blogging promotes written literacy, blogs also facilitate reading, engaging and reflecting	students typically cannot contribute content to the content of other blogs blogs are less collaborative than some other web-based tools (e.g. wikis) as they are generally written by a single author blogs are often blocked in schools (or only approved blog sites are available) blogging in classroom environments has been criticised  as being contrived blogging requires students to access the internet, which involves ethical/legal/safety concerns provides a potential avenue for bullying or other antisocial behaviours blogging is perceived by some to be trivial	blog content is static, which may be useful for teachers in some applications editable chronological aspect of blogs is useful for diaries or reflective purposes blogging is a useful tool for engaging a wide range of learners blogging has potential for both individual and (somewhat limited) collaborative activities important that blogging serves a purpose and is appropriately scaffolded allows teachers to communicate with parents/families allows teachers to teach explicitly about subjective/objective information and opinion versus fact blogging should be supported by a clear code of conduct and explanation of netiquette it is likely that teachers will need to tailor assessment criterion for blogging activities, as it will probably need to be more flexible and iterative than traditional assessment techniques

As the practice of educational blogging becomes more popular, a wide range of practical examples are freely available online.

I like the idea presented by Downes (2004) of separating blogs into different 'spaces' (e.g. public, personal reflections able to be shared and private spaces to facilitate teacher feedback).

The phenomenon of instant online publishing and feedback not only takes the focus off the teacher as the 'expert', but also provides avenues for feedback/assessment additional to traditional teacher feedback. Through online comments and functions such as 'likes' and 'dislikes', students are provided with self-assessment opportunities provided by their own community of learners.

Applications of blogs are numerous and are only really limited by the imagination of teachers. In the context of my own teaching practice, I see blogs as offering advantages in the following key areas:

• Tool for information exchange between the teacher and parents/families/school communities (e.g. through a classroom blog which pages for calendar, information/annoucements for parents, class rules, homework - http://mrbaldock.edublogs.org/).
• Tool for information exchange between the teacher and students (e.g. relevant links, assignment information, class rules, homework, class news, reminders, extension exercises).
• Tool for information exchange within classes/areas of the school. This link provides an example of a library blog, which is relevant to all students at the school.
• Tool for archiving and publishing student work (http://tlpsart.edublogs.org/).
• Tool for scaffolded individual/group reflection and collaboration within a class or wider online networks.
• Assignment construction point (e.g. 'expert jigsaw).

The below video provides a great summary of the benefits of blogging in the teaching context.

As with any other online tool, it is critically important that students are provided with information and training about online safety. This should involve establishing clear rules/practices when using the internet (e.g. use of avatars instead of student photos, use of nickname or first name only, no personal information, stranger danger etc.). There are many resources available to support teachers in this area, many of which provide online videos/games - https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/.

References


Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, 39 (5), 14-26.