Final thoughts?

Well it is the last week of class in my ED517 course. I am still not convinced of the value of blogs. After several weeks of exploration, I have not changed my opinion. I have found way too much "personal, useless, crap" in my venture into blog world. I wish there was some way for someone somewhere to monitor all the garbage on the internet. But, I guess that is what makes the internet the place that we all love and adore. It is a place where we can go and forget all our cares, get lost in endless searches, read other peoples' blogs and realize our life isn't so bad after all, and it is where we can find ourselves. Up until a few weeks ago I had not given much thought to blogs. Now I find myself reading the news and political related blogs a little more. I guess that would be a positive effect of this whole blog assignment. Also, I think I may keep posting to my blog throughout the rest of my online education experience. It just may help me keep things in perspective.

As this week's positive use of blogs in the classroom I turn to the political arena. When I was in school, we ran mock elections during presidential election years. It was great fun to pick a candidate and run a campaign. I think that I could have my students do this using blogs to provide information on the candidates and hold informal debates with other students over issues. The students could combine the use of blogs, wiki-pages, or webpages to run their campaigns. I think this could be a good exercise.

One problem with assigning any computer related project, especially involving the internet, is that in today's advanced society there are still students who do not have home access to computers and/or the internet. I posted comments about this on our class discussion boards. It seems hard to believe, but it is true. So, I will need to find a way to make my blog (and other computer) activities classroom assignments. I think this may be fodder for a future blog entry...

"Professional" Blogs

So this week I spent some time looking at what I consider "professional" blogs. These are blogs on sites like msnbc, cnn, abc, etc., that are written by professional journalists. I went looking for blogs related to some of my favorite shows. What I found impressed me. Reading the blogs actually added to the stories that were reported on TV. I found it interesting to get these journalist's perspectives on a variety of subjects. This is what blogs are supposed to be about! So, if these were the only blogs I was reading, I'd see the benefits of blogs.

Now, for this week's positive classroom application of blogs I thought long and hard. I came up with the idea of an online pen-pal program using blogs instead of email. The students could partner with a school in another state or another country. The students could enter blogs like emails. If you were teaching a foreign language class, you could have your kids partner with a school in that country. Your students could blog in say German, and the other school would blog in English. This would be a great way for students to learn about other people and places. The blogs would be in "letter" form. I'm thinking I may decide to use blogs in my class after all. I still have some research to do, however.

Okay, it is the second week of the blog assignment. What insight into blogs have I gained in the past week? While trying to search for information on one particular subject, I decided to try the blog search engines suggested by my professor. I typed in my topic and got thousands upon thousands of responses. The problem was that none of the responses really related to what I was searching for. I tried another topic and got the same kind of results. What I was getting was a lot of personal blogs which contained no reference to the topics I was searching. I think I may be doing my blog searching wrong. I will have to explore that more this week. However, this whole experience has left me feeling even more positive that I don't like these blog things at all.

On a positive note, to meet my weekly goal, I have discovered another way in which I could incorporate blogs into my classroom should I ever become so inclined. I was thinking about this as I was entering my blog on our classroom blog site. One of the things that has been constant in my online classes so far is being asked about our preconceived knowledge of a topic through the discussion boards. So, I thought to myself why not set up a blog for my students to be able to provide this information. I would have the students in a class, possible a higher level class (juniors or seniors), keep a blog during the school year. They could record thoughts on what they thought they knew about the subject when the class started, what they learned during the year, and how that changed their perception of the subject. I can then track their progress and see if they are indeed getting what I expect them to get from the class.

All right! Two weeks down and two positive uses for blogs. Although I can find the positive, I'm not sure I will ever use these suggestions in my classes. Blogs are still blah!

ED 517

So, this is my first blog ever. I'm not sure right now how I feel about Blogs. Okay, strike that. I don't think much of blogs or bloggers. Too many people sharing too much useless information. So that is what I think at the start of this little experiment. Now, the question is will I change my mind by the time I am done? My first goal is to try and clear that belief from my mind and be open to the many opportunities blogging offers. See, I can say it even if I don't believe it.

My second goal will be to list one positive thing that blogs can bring to my classroom in each posting that I make. So, what will be the first positive item. I know. As a social studies teacher, world events will be a part of my teaching at some point. Blogs provide information on events from many different points of view. By having students explore blogs on a current event, they will gain a diverse perspective and insight into the event. It will maybe help them see the world and events through other peoples' eyes. This would definitely be a benefit to using blogs in the classroom.

Okay! Off to do some more blog exploring and blog soul searching!