Blogging is not the only way.

Throughout this semester, blogging has been an interesting task to keep on top of. I have to admit, at first I was relatively skeptical of this idea. However, I have to say my opinions have changed. It's been fun to write down my thoughts about education and our class discussions. Our question for this week. How is technology useful? How can you visualize using blogging in your future classroom?

I find this a very hard question to answer. Although I personally have grown to like this blog, I don't think others have taken to it quite as much. I find the blogs I'm following to be interesting, but if nothing new is written there is no gain. I think this would be an important aspect of incorporating blogs into a classroom. For them to remain a successful part of the learning process, they can not simply be created and not put to use. If no one comments, or creates a conversation from my or others thoughts, there is no learning taking place. So, in a classroom setting this would have to be strictly monitored.

On the other hand, strictly monitoring what students write on their blogs could easily be detrimental to the entire idea. I do not believe students will be free with their thoughts, or want to write in a blog if they are required to do so. I recently read in an article entitled, Play and Social Interaction in Middle Childhood by Doris Bergen and Doris Pronin Fromberg. This article explained that if a child or student chooses an activity, they think of it as play whereas if they are told they must do something, it is thought of as work. Blogging may be looked at by students as just another part of the work that they have to do for school.

If I eventually used blogs in my classroom, they would not be graded assignments. It would be simply for the entertainment of my students. I would of course monitor them from time to time to make sure nothing inappropriate was happening, but I would not require more than a single first entry from each student. I think that with encouraging statements, some students would become excited about the blogs. And for the ones who didn't, I would find another way for them to be excited about creating conversation between them and their peers. Blogging is not the only way to have meaningful conversation.