BL3_Orr_Toni_Getting Started With Blogger

I can see the many benefits of the blog and have started to learn about them through our Action Research Blogs that were created through iWeb in our earlier classes. This is an interesting form of communication. This allows one to place their thoughts down and keep your ideas where they are easily accessible. The blogs will also help to share common information with other colleagues working on similar projects. It is a great way to get your critical friends to be involved on their own schedule but also give you input and feedback. I see why students could care less about school but care about all of the social networking. By creating assignments to connect them with each other we as educators can get them to buy in to projects since it is done on the computer.

The benefit of the Blog in the classroom is that the teacher is the author and is control of the setup and how it will be used. The use of the blog is better than the wiki because the wiki can be changed and has multiple authors, thus not under the teacher control. The articles that I read talked about using the blog to create Higher Order Thinking (HOT) skills. They can be used to promote deep conceptual understanding of core curriculum. Students buy into their learning environments because they are now apart of it. The first article sited explains the differences between wikis and blogs and different sites to use for classroom blogs.  The article gives implicit instruction on set up and use.

These articles give ideas on things to use specifically in the modern classroom environment and how students today need these skills for society today.  These are skills for the twenty-first century and we as educators need to teach, explain and guide our students where they need to go.These skills need to be monitored and led by a skilled instructor for a true constructive learning environment.

Flierl, R., & Fowler, H. (2007). Educational uses of blogs and wikis. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(3), C3. http://search.ebscohost.com

Higdon, J., & Topaz, C. (2009). Blogs and wikis as instructional tools: A social software adaptation of Just-in-Time teaching. College Teaching, 57(2), 105-110. http://search.ebscohost.com

Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT blogging: A framework for blogging to promote higher order thinking. Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661. http://search.ebscohost.com