blog@geibtechforlearning

Case Study on Blogs

Ethics:
Before introducing a Weblog in a classroom, the teacher needs to address important issues to parents, teachers, and students. The issues are privacy, bullying, copyrights, and being safe. First, the teacher needs to get parental approval by sending a letter home explaining what a Weblog is and how it’s going to be used in the classroom. Also, discussing the use of Weblogs to administrators will reduce illegal issues from occurring. Inform parents and administrators that the Weblog will be password protected allowing certain people (administrators, teachers, and parents) to view the classroom Weblog. Share about the Weblog to colleagues so they know what project base activity your class is doing and other students from their classrooms don’t surprise them with it. Hopefully that will create an interest for them to create their own class Blog. Second, teachers need to take precautions of internet predators, bad language, and inappropriate pictures. In working with younger students the teacher needs to spend time planning and checking sites before going on-line. Talk to students that being safe are being responsible, so having a class discussion of what is safe and what isn’t is important. Copyrights should also be discussed. Let students know that the teacher has the use of copyrights to a certain extent and should be used responsibly or it could become illegal. Students also need to learn that their information is private. Putting pictures, names and tasteless comments about another student (bullying) is not acceptable and will not be tolerated with. Safety is about responsibility.

Learning Implications:
A Weblog in the classroom can have positive and negative learning implications. On the positive side, students today are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy. They have the motivation to learn a subject through the computer because it’s not dealing with the same boring text. Most of them can use the tool and go through it easily. The Weblog can address the learning needs of students who are visual, audio, and kinesthetic learners. Children who are visual learners are learning by looking at posts with pictures and links that they have created or another child has done. Audio learners are learning by listening to podcasts on poems, class broadcasting from other schools, summaries on books, and facts about a subject the student has learned. Kinesthetic learners are learning through the use of their hands by typing and using the mouse to create posts with pictures and links. It’s more project base and students are working with hands on activities coming from the teacher and not just the textbook that the district wants you to use. In doing a class Weblog the teacher differentiates instruction using this resource to reach all students. However, there is a negative side to it. Not all students have access to a computer at home to work with. The only access is at school and sometimes that’s not enough. Also, there’s parents might be computer illiterate and believe that the textbook is all their child needs to learn from. I believe that the parent needs to balance out the learning in using a computer and text.

Evolution:
The Weblog came from people who wanted an easy publishing tool. These people wanted to create personal journals and build resource sites creating a community of bloggers. This tool is a large box of information where people can learn about themselves and the world. Do to this; I can see more technology occurring in 5-10 years because everyday something new is going on. For instance, you see people using ipods instead of a CD-player or walk-man, cell phones, sky cams, wireless lab tops, digital cameras and much more than they had before. I can also see in the future students being able to communicate with other students in different countries. Maybe a bilingual student in the U.S can teach English to a student in Mexico or vice versa using Spanish. The ideas of using a class Blog are extraordinary!

Before taking this class, I had no idea what a BLOG was or how to use one. Here are some of my thoughts or ideas I had while learning about BLOGS. When implementing a class BLOG a teacher has to think of many issues that might go along with it. One issue is privacy. The first thing a teacher should do is consider having their class BLOG password protected. This will only allow a person who knows the password to enter the class BLOG. This will keep the class BLOG safe and private to use. A teacher also needs to think of the student’s privacy. She shouldn’t use a student’s last name or pictures of a student on the class BLOG. She needs to inform the parents about the class BLOG and get consent from them for their child to use it. The form should be very generic so as not to overwhelm the parents.
A teacher should also inform her principal and the school district she works for on her plans to implement a class BLOG. They might have concerns or procedures that might hinder implenting a class BLOG due to legality issues.
Another issue is safety. I mentioned earlier about having a class BlOG password protected, which will keep the students safe from inappropriate people visiting the class BLOG. Obviosuly, this will not be 100% safety proof, so the teacher needs to let the students know that they need to report any writing that is inappropriate to her. She also needs to talk to the students about being responsible when using the class BLOG. Since the students can post what they write without it being approved they should be told not to use inappropriate language (cuss words), or write cruel comments to other students (bullying). The teacher might also want to discuss with her students that not all teachers and students at the school are using a class BLOG and how to behave when talking about it to their friends. They should not put down other teachers or make bragging remarks to other students.
The last issue is copyrights. A teacher has to be careful what she and their students put on (pictures, video, or audio) their class BLOG. A teacher has a limited use of copyright, but should not abuse this privilege because it could become a legal issue.
A class BLOG can have many learning implications in the classroom. It could help all types of learners: kinesthetic, audio, and visual. For the kinesthetic learners this will give them an opportunity to learn using their hands (typing) or mouth (recording their voice). For the audio learners they can listen to podcasts. For the visual learner they can see the text on the blog with pictures and links to other text and pictures.
Nowadays the students we are getting in our classrooms are more technology savvy than their teachers. They have gameboys, ipods, cell phones, computers, DVD players, and other technology gadgets that they grew up with. Technology is all around them and a part of their daily lives. So why not use technology as a tool to engage the students who already are using technology and expose the students who are not. I think it’s a good motivator to learn. It’s different from the traditional way they usually learn at school.
For many years students have been passive learners in school, but now they can be active learners by creating their own media. Using computers does not mean that students will not write or read in class. In actuality most students write with paper and pencil first before typing and posting on the class BLOG. It gives the students another opportunity to read text in another format other than books.
A class BLOG would create a community within the teacher, parent, and student. It’s a way for all to be involved and communicate amongst one another. The parents would be able to enter the class BLOG to find out what the class is up to or to see their child’s writing and respond to it. The parents would be able to communicate with other students besides their own as well as the teacher.
Technology has come along way. It was only 17 years ago when internet evolved, which gave people opportunities to communicate with people all over the world and find information on just about anything. We have much faster Internet connection and media like audio/podcast, video, and skype now that we didn’t have many years ago. It’s been only a few years that read/write web (BLOG) has evolved, but it is becoming increasingly popular with people as a way to record things and allowing people to read and respond back. I think blogging will become a common thing in a few years just as e-mailing has become. I think in education teachers will all have a class BLOG in a few years.
I am excited to see how my class BLOG will work in my classroom. I know that at the beginning of starting a class BLOG it will be time consuming, but once it’s all set up it will be easier in the long run. I will just have to keep updating it from time to time.
I have a couple ideas on how I would use it in my class. I really like the idea of having a student report what the class is doing on a daily basis. I would give all the students an opportunity to do this. I would also use it to showcase student’s writing. This could be a report, poetry, journal, etc. The students could also record their writing on a podcast. I thought about maybe using the class BLOG to participate in a pen">http://www.ks-connection.org/”>pen pal exchange, instead of the traditional pen pal exchange you do over the mail. The pen pals could be from the same city, another state, or another country. Of course I would also use the class BLOG to ask questions on what the students are learning in class that they would have to answer. I especially like the idea of using the class BLOG for literature circles. The students would be in groups and read books at their levels. Each group would then share its book on a podcast.
Now that the class is over I feel I am leaving with enough knowledge to implement a BLOG in my class.