From Pencil in Hand to Fingers on Keyboard: Bringing Blogging into the Classroom

Can I be real with you?  Technology does not excite me.  I’ve always been a paper and pencil kind of gal. 

I remember in college, I would hand write papers before typing them out to turn in. (And no…it wasn’t because I graduated before computers were invented!)  For me, my brain functions better and my thoughts are more organized with pencil in hand.  My husband is opposite.  He never understands why I do these things and he carries his computer or tablet everywhere with him.  We will attend a class at church together and he will be taking notes on his smart phone while I am hand writing them.  

For these reasons, I have been slow to adopt technology into my teaching.  Admittedly, it also has not always been available to me either, but even if it were I don’t think I would have taken advantage of it.  Now that I am pursuing my Masters in Education, I am being forced to move outside my comfort zone and sometimes begrudgingly embrace technology.  I have seen the many benefits it can provide and have had my eyes opened to possibilities that I didn’t even know existed.  This is all good, even if it is uncomfortable and difficult. 

So, in an effort to bend my view of embracing technology begrudgingly to viewing it with an anticipation for the benefits it can provide and ways it can enhance my students’ learning I am ready to be honest and admit that technology is good.  Let’s explore this.

Benefits of Technology within Writing:

• ·        Motivation
• ·        Causes students to think more deeply about audience
• ·        Ease of revising, editing, and publishing
• ·        Allows students to easily revisit pieces over longer periods of time (“How many school assignments do students return to three years later?” – Bud Hunt )
• ·        Students can reach a wider audience
• ·        More feedback
• ·        Enables students to become a part of a global community
• ·        Prepares students for the real world (Read more about using technology for “college and career readiness” here.)

Whether on paper or on a technological platform, students still move through the writing process.  Using technology just gives students more motivation, causes them to think more deeply about audience, and allows for easier revising, editing, and publishing.  Using technology also lengthens the writing process in that it makes it easier for students to revisit pieces from weeks, months, or even years ago to add to or revise writing.

Allowing students to publish their writing and reviews of books on the internet enables students to reach a wider audience and become a part of a global community.  The feedback they receive both helps them to become better writers and motivates them to improve their writing to reach a larger audience.  A word of caution:  The connectedness the internet gives students can be both a blessing and a curse.  Carefully monitor the sites you use with students for these purposes and who is able to view them and comment on them.  Try to use a site that requires approval for posts or comments when working with students.  Because we live in a fallen and sometimes sick world, sites that do not sensor posts or content, such as KidsPub, can contain content that is definitely NOT kid friendly. As long as you approach with caution, however, sites like Biblionasium can cause students to become engaged critical readers and thinkers as they accept suggestions about books from their peers and provide their own thoughts to others.

Let’s zoom into blogging.  How can blogging be used by students and teachers?  What are the benefits of reading and commenting on the blogs of others and what kinds of writing are students actually involved in or practicing as they participate in these activities?

Although I am sure my skilled readers could make beauty from the mess created from diving right into blogging with students before taking steps to prepare them, I think it is worth noting that shared blogging and modeling are very useful tools for teachers wanting to bring blogging into their classrooms.  You can read more about this here.  The possibilities for how blogging can be used by students and teachers are endless, so I am choosing to highlight three ways.  Feel free to add more ideas in the comments!

• ·        Students can read and write about topics important to them.  This form of blogging is excellent for helping students develop voice in their writing and to feel like what they have to say is valuable to the world.  This writing could take the form of informative writing, how-to, or narrative to name a few.  Students may also make an argument for or against something near and dear to them.  Blogging is very versatile in the type, genre, or form that it can take.
• ·        Students can blog in response to books.  They could do this in the form of a book review or blog from the perspective of a character from the book.  View an example of this here.
• ·        Blogs could be used as a parent engagement tool.  Not only can blogs inform parents about what is going on in the classroom, but invites them to add to the discussions and learning that are taking place.  Here is an example of a classroom blog that brings parents into the learning happening in the classroom.

How have you used blogging in your classroom?  What steps did you take to prepare students?  What advice do you have for teachers who are about to step out and try blogging with their students for the first time?