Blogging in K-12 Education

Blogging in K-12 Education

Craig Gunter Georgia Southern University FRIT 7330 Summer 2011

Blogging in K-12 Education Abstract Blogs are an ever growing tool available for use on the internet. It is a tool that allows for better cooperation and interactivity between students, teachers, and parents. Blogging can lead to increased engagement and interaction with students. Blogging is also a way that teachers can be sure that learning occurs outside the constraints of the school day and school building. Blogging is a great step that schools and teachers can take to further collaboration and lead to further opening of content. The barriers to blogging are minimal and can be overcome with a district level decision to unblock blogging sites from school networks.

Blogging in K-12 Education I chose two types of articles for my research on blogging in education. The first type of articles that I chose had to do with student and teacher perceptions of blogging in education. These two articles focus on why teachers choose to use blogs in their classes and do students perceive blogging as an effective tool in their educations. The second type of articles that I researched deal with potential benefits that blogs can provide in education. In the first type of articles I researched I learned about the factors that influence teachers to adopt blogging. The key factors that this research article states affect whether teachers adopt blogging are enjoyment, ease of use, personal innovativeness, desire to help others, school support, and perceived usefulness (Lai & Chen, 2011). While factors such as enjoyment, personal innovativeness, and desire to help others seem to be part of the individual s personality the other factors are ones that schools can help build in teachers. Factors such as ease of use, school support, and perceived usefulness are factors that schools can help build in teachers through professional development and support. Another article that I reviewed dealt with how students perceive blogging in education. Is it effective? In the article the authors state that a majority of the students in the course that responded to surveys indicated that blogging as part of their coursework led them to think more about the content outside of the classroom and enhanced their learning (Halic, Lee, Paulus, & Spence, 2010). While this article dealt with undergraduate students the findings can help educators who are interested in incorporating blogging into the k-12 environment. The second type of articles I reviewed dealt with potential benefits that blogging can provide in education. The first article I reviewed examined whether or not using blogs and digital text helped students reading comprehension skills in developmental reading classes. The researchers found that using blogs and digital text had a positive correlation with a higher reader retention rate (Hsu & Wang, 2011). The second article I reviewed dealt with learner autonomy and the effect that blogging in education can have on a student s autonomy. The researchers found that blogging made the students more autonomous since they had to create their own blogs (Bhattacharya & Chauhan, 2010). For the k-

Blogging in K-12 Education 12 classroom I think that this study indicates that through blogging we can get students to better learn who they are as learners. As students become more aware of themselves as learners, teachers will better be able to interact with students in ways that fit their learning styles and personalities. The final article I reviewed had to do with increasing student interaction through the use of blogs. The researchers found that blogs could improve student interaction and instruction (Cuhadar & Kuzu, 2010). There are several potential applications for blogging in the k-12 classroom. One of the best potential uses of blogging in the classroom is to increase student interaction and participation. Blogs are a tool that can be used in student group work to increase discussion among students and sharing of information (Cuhadar & Kuzu, 2010). In my classroom there are always students who are reluctant to share what they know or ideas they have in group assignments due to shyness. Using a blog as part of a group assignment should decrease the anxiety those students have about speaking up with their ideas and information. Having students create blogs about the course is also a great way for teachers to really get to know who their students are and see how well they have understood class content. A teacher created blog that students can make comments online about can also increase reader retention rate (Hsu & Wang, 2011). If students have to read material on a blog provided by a teacher and then make a post or comment about what they have read they will really have to think about what they read in order to make a comment about it. This is also a valuable tool for teachers to check up and make sure that students understood what they read. Student created blogs have also shown to increase how much students think about course material outside of the classroom (Halic, Lee, Paulus & Spence, 2011). This is a tool that teachers can use to ensure that learning occurs beyond the restraints of the school day. I explored the blogging site http://www.thoughts.com . I chose this blogging site to explore because it is one hundred percent free and has many nice features available on it. The best features of this blogging site are that it comes with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited video upload, and a live chat

Blogging in K-12 Education feature. My reaction to this tool for use in this classroom is that it is a great way to provide information and interaction in and outside of the classroom. Using this site to extend the learning that takes place in the classroom is a great way to get students engaged and excited about their learning. It is my experience as a middle school teacher that my students love to express themselves. I have thought for a few years that it would be a great activity to have students set up their own blogs to use as a tool for working on assignments and sharing what they have learned. After exploring www.thoughts.com I am now sure that I am going to do this in my upcoming classes this school year. The greatest merit that I believe blogging as a classroom tool has is that it makes students think about material outside of class. If a student is going to create a blog or just respond to a class blog they will have to think about the content outside of their regular class time. Another great merit of using blogging in the classroom is the interaction between students and the students with the instructor that blogging can facilitate. Another valuable merit of blogging is that it gets students excited about their school work. Students love to create online. Blogging is a great way for students to get to create and share their work and themselves online. Increasing student engagement through blogging may be the most important merit that the tool has. In a time when teachers struggle to keep students attention and focus blogging is a tool that students like to use and will encourage them to stay on top of course material. The largest barrier to incorporation of blogging into the k-12 classroom environment is that in many school districts, like mine, blog sites are blocked by the district. In order to get these sites unblocked and available for class use teachers will have to have a very clear argument as to why they should be allowed to use the tool. Administrators and district level personnel will want to keep a close eye on the blogs to be sure that their use is focused on school work and that nothing inappropriate is posted by students on the blogs. Teachers will have to be vigilant and stay on top of student work on

Blogging in K-12 Education the blogs to make sure that the use of the tool in school will not be abused. If it is the plug will be pulled quickly. Teachers may also have to assure parents that the use of a blog is a valuable educational tool. Many parents may be apprehensive at the onset of the use of blogging in school and teachers should be prepared to alleviate any fears that parents may have. I feel that once the use of the tool is put into place that many parents would like the aspect of being able to check out a classroom blog or a student s blog to see what is going on in class. I feel that the likely impact that blogging may have on education is a very large positive one. All teachers are looking for ways to encourage a love of learning. Allowing students to use this tool is one way to encourage this. I also think that blogging has the potential to greatly increase collaboration between teachers. This is a way of providing open content. Teachers will be able to check out what is going on and working in other teachers classrooms. Blogging is one tool that can allow teachers to better collaborate with each other when face to face shared planning time is limited. I see blogging as an educational tool as something that is going to evolve and become much more common over time. This is an early step on the road to every teacher having a website that is used by students and parents to stay on top of what is going on in each classroom. It is also an early step to a truly open curriculum. One day assignments and content material for a class may be located on a web page. Blogging is a step teachers can take now to help push schools down this road.

Blogging in K-12 Education References Lai, H., Chen, C. (2011). Factors influencing secondary school teachers adoption of teaching blogs. Computers & Education, 4 (56), 948-960. Halic, O., Lee, D., Paulus, T., Spence, M. (2010). To blog or not to blog: student perceptions of blog effectiveness for learning in a college level course. Internet and Higher Education, 13 (4), 206213. Hsu, H., Wang, S. (2011). The impact of using blogs on college students reading comprehension and learning motivation. Literacy Research and Instruction, 50 (1), 68-88. Bhattacharya, A., Chauhan, K. (2010). Augmenting learner autonomy through blogging. ELT Journal, 64 (4), 376-384. Cuhadar, C., Kuzu, A. (2010). Improving interaction through blogs in a constructivist learning environment. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 11 (1), 134-161.