Classroom blogs reinforce course content
By Susanne Croasdaile, Ph.D.
Do your students have difficulty organizing work and maintaining interest in course content? Do they have Internet access at home? If so, weblogs (or “blogs”) could help. This article provides an entry-level discussion of how simple classroom blogs can support educators in making content more meaningful and help students to get their work done.
Searching for meaning
Educators can use blog postings to make frequent connections between the current content and its real-life application. Most classroom blogs link to other resources on the Internet. This can make content more meaningful to students and increase their engagement in learning the material (Downes, 2004; Flannery, 2005; Stronge, 2002). Figure 1 is a screenshot from Miss Baker’s biology class, an award-winning blog that features frequent real-life connections (Birds on an island lab video, 2008). In this blog posting, the teacher links to Web content that reinforces the class’s findings during lab time and provides links for students who wish to see real-life applications of what they were exploring.
Hitting the road
Virtual field trips can be conducted through blogs. Digital photographs, Google Earth satellite images and virtual tours can be combined with engaging text to bring students in contact with destinations they would otherwise be unable to reach. Famous museums such as the Guggenheim, historical sites such as the Taj Mahal and natural environments such as the Olympic National Park can be toured as homework assignments (Britt, 2006). A good way to begin finding these Internet resources is to type “virtual field trip” and the topic into a search engine such as Google.
Connecting with home
Teacher-parent partnerships support students with learning disabilities (Bryan & Burstein, 2004). Blogs can provide a convenient method of communication between educators and parents. Because blogs are a just-in-time technology intended to be frequently and easily updated, educators can access them quickly to provide relevant information to students and parents.
Daily and weekly blog postings can be used to clarify project choices as well as to communicate applicable resources, due dates and assignment details. At home, parents can support students in accessing and acting on this information. Over time, parents can reduce their level of involvement as students independently access the information and make sure their work is completed in a timely and appropriate manner (Finstein, Yang, & Jones, 2007).
Some educators (such as Miss Baker) involve their students in writing blog posts. Blog-writing assignments can link students to engaging Web content and ask them to respond to or summarize it (Downes, 2004; Flannery, 2005). It is not unusual to find students taking greater responsibility for their work when using authentic publication methods such as blogs; the thought of having a genuine audience for their work can be motivating for students (Pascopella, 2006).
Student blogging is on the rise, and as educators’ comfort level with blogging increases, student participation in classroom blogs will also increase (Downes, 2004). The impact of this on student performance remains to be seen; however, it is likely that levels of engagement and motivation will be positively affected.
The key to the effective use of any new tool in the classroom is for the educator to feel comfortable with it and understand its strengths and limitations.
- Take a few minutes to set up a personalized classroom blog.
- Play with the blog for a while before sharing it with students and parents.
- Visit blogs used by other educators, such as Miss Baker’s biology blog, to determine what to post and how often to post it.
Share the blog address with students and families when you feel ready. Soon your students will see many meaningful content connections and benefit from additional support for organizing and completing assignments.
For references, or to print this article, please refer to the pdf version
