Post #3: Blogs in the Classroom

 As a future educator, I would definitely try to take advantage of the online community that the blogging technology helps create. I could see myself using it how blackboard is used at Grand Valley. I can post and discuss each weeks agenda and assignments, along with reminders for both the students and the parents. I like how the blog resembles a Facebook or Twitter because this would hopefully mean that students would be comfortable and confident with using this technology. As the teacher, using this to post information directly can help me better communicate to the parents about what is going on in class more often than just conferences or emails. Furthermore, students could use it as a place to be reminded of or see each days events in case they forget or were absent. They could also use it to spark class discussion or post questions they may have about assignments.

As a science teacher, I can see myself using this a lot instead of having students do written work. I would use it for students to write discussions or reflections after labs and experiments so all the students can benefit from reading others' work. The publicity of information would allow a sense of collaboration in my class that is a key component of a scientific community that would not necessarily be accomplished through written assignments, Word, or Google Docs. Also, a blog keeps a more personalized record or timeline of a person's work throughout the year than Word or Google Docs does, and also allows other students' to read and comment on posts. Consequently, some features that would be useful in my future teaching would be the ease at which information can be shared to a large group including both students and parents, the network or sense of community it would create in my classroom and the pride and ownership students' would take in their work since a blog is a public and creative record of their thoughts. Another advantage of blogging over Google Docs or Word, is the fact students' can embed videos and pictures that enhance the information and depth of their post. Some constraints I may experience could be technology issues, slower responses to questions than if it were in person or lack of face to face discussion and interaction. The use of technology is important; however, it is also important that students are able to communicate professionally in-person and not just online. Therefore, I would need to make sure that I still facilitate discussion in my classroom and not just rely on the online discussions.