And perhaps we’re coming to the end of the blogging cycle, but you will still find at any technology conference for educators presentations on how to use blogs in the classroom.
If your colleague tells you that she is about to create a blog for her classroom, pull the plug from the computer and run away.
Do not let another teacher start an “educational” blog: it simply is a bad idea.
“But wait!” you exclaim, “there’s so many cool ways to use the Web 2.0 in the classroom with your students.”
And so the eager teacher points you to a bulleted list much like the one you’ll find at ClassPress:
- Chapter discussions!
- Links to online resources!
- Current Events!
- Share Content!
- Connect with your Class!
(I’ve included the exclamation point because each explanation ends with that degree of enthusiasm).
The nature of a blog was not meant to be these things per se; the blog’s power comes in the voice of the writer of the blog. For a teacher, who has not written online, to have a strong voice in a “class blog” is rare. Instead the expectation of instant “discussion” usually falls flat. And then most teachers are not prepared for the feedback component of a blog and become frustrated with the results.
To insist that “the classroom” be moved to the internet via a “class blog” is just asking for failure. Instead, teachers should resist the urge to start a blog for the classroom and instead, start a personal blog, or get a Facebook account, or a Twitter account or join and participate in one of many social networks out there. Experience how the interactivity yourself first for the summer, then, start thinking how a blog or an online learning environment (such as Moodle) could extend what happens in the classroom.
Students are much smarter than we think and they are certainly more sophisticated than we give them credit. If a teacher says that she blogs and invites students to her blog (and perhaps to comment on the blog) that speaks volumes. For one thing, it shows that the teacher is not merely jumping on the technological bandwagon after a conference or a staff training. Besides, how many teacher blogs out there haven’t moved beyond “Hello, world” posts?
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