No worries! There's no need to be afraid of blogs in an academic setting. Weblogs ("blogs) are a Web 2.0 technology that can be successfully integrated into a classroom and support learning in familiar yet new manners. What do I mean by that? Some existing instructional strategies that fit well with blog use in a classroom are: writing/journaling, reflecting, discussion, and sharing found resources.
Why? Well, just as I am currently writing a reflection about blogs/Web 2.0, it is easy for students to write reflections in this format. Not only does the technology revolve around posting personal insights/reflections, but it also allows for comments (and subscriptions to others' blogs through RSS feeds), which are an easy way for students to "discuss" the posted content and see what others are "saying". This allows every students "voice" to be "heard" and allows them time to formulate responses without being put "on the spot" in the classroom itself. Also, sharing websites or providing links to different resources is easily accomplished with a blog. Classmates can easily click on links you provide and view the resources you want to share.
Does EVERYTHING fit well with blog use? Wouldn't that be great? Of course that's not the case, though. Cooperative learning does not work well if conducted entirely via blogs. While students could discuss the assignment and share resources, they would not be able to use a blog to construct the entire project, as they could in, say GoogleDocs. Also, the asynchronous nature of blogs does not allow for guided practice or immediate feedback. Students have to post and then wait to hear back from the instructor and/or classmates. In this way, if a student was trying to practice a concept and wanted help right away, the blog would not be able to provide a means for that.
What about using blogs in YOUR Spanish classroom? Great question! I could see blogs being used in my classroom a variety of ways. In a basic Spanish course, blogs could be used to discuss and post reflections on cultural topics, such as bull fighting or the notion of "siesta". Students might also use blogs to create basic sentences and paragraphs in the target language. In higher level courses, students could create their blogs entirely in Spanish, reflecting, discussing, and demonstrating advanced levels of grammatical skill. Again, culture-based discussions would be great in this forum, as students could speak from their own perspective with more comfort than they might have in an in-class discussion. For example, if the topic were the Latino-organized school walkouts in Los Angeles in the late '60s, students could research and investigate more online, then create an informed discussion through their blogs.
In general, blogs can be highly useful in the classroom. Even if the teacher is the only person who creates one and uses it to keep students and parents informed, it will have increased connectivity. The notion that students and teachers alike could tap into this resource to create another, "virtual" classroom/learning space is EXCITING and should not be regarded with fear and resistance. So try one out. Share it with your students. You may find that "blogs in your classroom" can be a GOOD thing!
1 comment:
Great ideas for using blogs in the classroom! I was thinking along the same lines when you mentioned using them for reflecting on cultural aspects and for constructing sentences in Spanish.
A concern I have with blogs is the students' protection when publishing something on the web. I think we are learning about that in our next session. What do you think?
~Katy
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