Blogging Manifesto Part 4/4- Blogs & New Ways of Learning

Blogs and New Ways of Learning

 

What is often missed in writing class is relevance, context ,and audience. A student hands in a written draft assignment to the teacher, expects feedback, modifies draft into a final written 'paper', hands it in, then its done! That's it -the final assignment is graded and is filed away with little significance to student or teacher. 

 

There are several ways to thinking about teaching and learning that have emerged in the online learning arena.  These include:  Challenge-Based Learning, Video Communications, and Micro lectures.

 

 

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL): are interdisciplinary and involve wider community.   CBL begins with big idea/issue that needs to be evaluated, researched, and acted upon by the student.  Blogs, wikis, and web cameras are some tools students can use on such projects.  Exposing students to CBL opportunities gives their work relevance and context.   Students can use their blogs to reach out to the community via surveys or questionnaires, document their research findings, and finally  post their take action initiative that help address the big issue.  Here are useful examples of student- led challenges and solutions.

 

Video Communications: The ease of use of cell phone or computer cameras in young hands coupled with ease of online video publishing gives students an added communications medium.  Students can be encouraged to create a video production of a fictional story they wrote, documentary of project work, or create a digital story of their choice. 

 

Micro Lectures:   Students can be encouraged to create their own micro lecture with the purpose of advising or tutoring an absent peer for example and post it on their blog.  Having student present key concepts of a lesson in form of a micro lecture forces them to focus on a single important point of foundational concept. 

 

Blogging Assignments

 

How to Teach with Blogs is a long but thorough post on how to effectively use blogs for educational purposes. I love that it lists non-negotiable as well as negotiable 'rules' when using blogs in the classroom.  It offers educators a lot of flexible ideas when incorporating blogs in the curriculum.

Also check out Using blogging as a learning tool & A better blogging assignment for useful tips and tricks to incorporating blogs in your curriculum.  Blogging as Writing Curriculum also gives nice ideas on how to mix prompted and free post assignments.

 

Two rules I like to stick with in my own classroom:

• Individual personalized blogs work best. They are learner centered offers student ability to create their own online presence...here I am, hear me roar.

• Minimal prompt allows freedom of thought and expression. Student choice of topic and mode of expression (multimedia) give optimal autonomy and independence...log, journaling, photo gallery, storytelling...

 

Some reasons why I love using blogs in my classroom:

• Open forum builds communities and relationships.  Ability to link to others and receive and give back comments allows for communication, reflection, debate, elaboration. 

• Blogs offer authentic learning by exposing students to real-world context/topics - drives cognitive learning.

• Blogs drive the message that writing and self-expression in general have long term benefit and go beyond English classroom requirements.

 

Finally, here is a concluding case study of blogging's positive effect on students of writing.


Happy blogging...to you and to your students!  Don't be shy, famous blogger Andrew Sullivan writes his personal reflection on blogging:

 

I take less time, worry less about polish, and care less about the consequences on my blog. That makes for more honest writing. It may not be “serious” in the way, say, a 12-page review of 14th-century Bulgarian poetry in the New Republic is serious. But it’s serious inasmuch as it conveys real ideas and feelings in as unvarnished and honest a form as possible.