The use of a blog in the classroom as a teaching tool/pedagogy has what appears to be on first glance, many, many uses. This I believe is where the problem lies. With seemingly endless possibilities of uses in the classroom, the challenge is focussing this web space for singular classroom activities.
The way the blogs have been used in this course as both
reflective tool and an assessment tool demonstrates this focussing of
potential. We have been asked to use the blog to reflect on various parts of
the course so far, from learning theories to basic ICT tools, such as this.
Throughout the entire course so far, we have been strongly encouraged to use
appropriate scaffolding to our own analysis’ to ensure we continue to focus on
our content.
Through effective scaffolding, I believe I can use a blog in
my classroom to affect a positive, maximised learning experience. Teachers
should realise the potential of blogs but also realised their need to be part
of very well designed lesson plans.
An example of a poor use of blogging is to simply set a
class the activity of setting up their own blog and making four posts on a
topic being studied. Whilst it does provide the student with an opportunity to
learn how to set up a blog, stressing a focus on technology, it does not focus
on content and has a very limited pedagogy. Teachers should be aware of the
TPCK framework and make sure that the technology works with the pedagogy and
focuses on the content to enhance the students’ learning outcomes.
Fasso (2013) suggests, “One of the very best ways to
encourage your students to write is to have them record their own learning
journey, remembering also that school is only a small part of their learning
journey.” A modification to that activity would be to ask the students to set
up a blog, and ask the students to reflect on what they learnt in 4 separate
lessons, using an analytical thinking tool such as De Bono’s thinking hats or a
SWOT or PMI analysis exercise. Also, Bloom’s Taxonomy is a very helpful tool
for posing questions effectively to student and engaging higher order thinking
skills (the HOTS). This way, students are always focussed on thinking about
content whilst using effective pedagogies to make sure students are thinking in
the right manner about the content. Overall, the technology is not the
overarching behemoth that some teachers can let it be.
Other examples of the effective use of blogs in the music classroom
I teach in are:
- Posting a video or sound clip for students to listen to, then asking them to comment on how the elements of music are manipulated to create the particular song.
- Instead of using an end of term exam to present an analytical essay, the assessment could be broken up into parts and student could write posts on their own blogs for a series of songs analysing them against the elements of music.
- Students could post original compositions to their blog for discussion with classmates (brainstorming ideas) and along with that, use the blog as a reflective journal.
- For a performance assessment, students could reflect weekly on their progress toward the final performance discussing how they have improved, what they have learnt and what they could learn from here.
Using a blog in the classroom has various positive and
negative implications for the classroom. The following SWOT Analysis is a
helpful tool to structure my analysis.
Strengths
- Extends the learning to outside the classroom
- Gets students to take control of their leaning in an interactive environment
- Allows access at any time
- Allows discussion via comments
- Allows for some Connectivism via connection to the rest of the internet
- Has many different uses, but can be scaffolded very efficiently
- Allows students’ to voice their ideas and opinions from the comfort of their own home, whilst allowing them to provide sufficient evidence to support their ideas and opinions.
Weaknesses
- Because of public access, anyone can obtain information and materials. Online safety becomes an issue.
- Comment moderation is only optional. Defamatory comments and even defamatory posts can be presented.
Opportunities
- Endless ideas for student interaction and engagement
- Mobile technologies allow for posts to be viewed and updated on the go.
- Student creativity can come to the forefront (a big plus in my KLA the Arts)
- Interaction between students on a whole new level outside of face to face and Facebook.
Threats
- Through a lack of scaffolding, activities can become somewhat blunted and purposeless.
- Student safety is a massive issue, but if comments are disabled, discussion is muted.
References
Fasso, W. (2013). Digital
tool 1: Blogs for Learning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491
ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/407928/mod_page/content/8/blogs.html
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