One of the more interesting things I have read in the last month was by Will Richardson in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom. He discussed the use of blogs as a source of information that teachers and students (especially students) need to learn to navigate. Of course, my first reaction was to think, “What?!” For so long we have stressed source reliability and only relying on those sources that we feel are “proven” or “legitimate.” However, as Richardson Richardson
Tyler, I was ambivalent to blogs as a phenomenon in any context whether is was political, educational, or for entertainment before this class. But, it was the realization that blogs are personal publishing houses that helped me understand the power of them. Here's an example. The principal at my school wants every homeroom teacher to give a writing prompt to every student for a "Drop Everything and Write" activity on National Writing Day. The problem with this assignment is that the writing is essentially meaningless and does not have a purpose. Blogging gives students a purpose to write and a voice. And, the feedback that the student gets does not have to be from the teacher alone. I have also come across blogs of former students who are displaying their art work and expressing their talents in multiple ways on their own. We'd be remiss as educators not to explore their power further.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I appreciate your comment about using various blogs to construct and deconstruct persuasive arguments, encouraging the students to become good consumers of information.
Great post. I think it is so important for students to start interacting with tools such a blogs. When you write about something you know or even like, it is so easy to practice writing for the web and expressing your thoughts and feelings through concrete examples using links, multimedia, etc. from the web. Plagiarizing is tough to do on the web when your constantly linking information. It's about sharing, not stealing. I think sharing and collaborating on wikis will help make a better web for students to sort through. There can be a lot of junk.
ReplyDeleteTyler,
ReplyDeleteI think the concept of digital citizenship is so important when teaching for 21st century learners. Students must know how to discriminate between blogs and other internet resources and where to obtain good, reliable information. It is also extremely important to review copyright information with students and to express the idea of plagiarism and theft. Students should be aware of their actions online and how they can take appropriate steps in order to make the most of their experience.