three things

Blogging is a simple but powerful tool that is available to classrooms and teachers wishing to make the most of the connectivity that is part of our world in the 21st century. Blogging is quite simple to set up, easy to control, and fits in beautifully with all key learning areas (KLAs) in your room. (Pericles 2008). 

Happily Blogging @ Belmore (K Pericles 2008) was a great read! It joyfully espoused one of the (many truths) universally acknowledged: A teacher in pursuit of purposeful and relevant learning should have a go at blogging with their class.

Seriously, the way K Pericles had utilised blogging in her school sounds both extremely engaging and highly beneficial to students achieving deep understanding of their topics. Rather than just looking at the activities, I’d like to look at the key ideas behind how the blogs are so effective for student learning. (This is not to discount the benefit of the many activities listed in the reading. There is an enormous capacity for creativity when it comes to blogs, which means that they can be adapted for almost any KLA or topic. However the achievement of a quality learning experience is achieved through 3 things

1. The article points out that this generation has completely embraced technology. They are unafraid of the new. They are already using the internet and various social media sites* to share information outside of school. By incorporating blogging into the school, we are making their school lessons more relevant because they are delivered in a more engaging and familiar way. The lessons around blogging engage the students and motivate them. *I think there is also a point to be made about how pervasive the internet is in all facets of life. Students are using the internet more than ever before, but a good working knowledge of the internet is necessary to function in our society now, which has rapidly embraced the internet as a platform from which to do nearly everything. Our students should have a good grounding in the new technologies available to them during their school lessons because the internet is going to be a crucial part of their future.

2. All students can simultaneously be involved in tasks that are engaging, self-directed and differentiated based on abilities and interests. The article illustrated how with the power of blogging and a great quality control framework and posting guidelines, it is possible to have a whole class completely engaged in their separate activities. The quality control criteria is crucial because it makes students think before they post. If they are posting for a much wider audience (such as the whole world) they will be more keen to post the highest quality of their work. This can lead to authentic student self direction.

3. The wider audience is a huge motivating factor that shouldn’t be underestimated. We all like to be praised and noticed. The students were immensely excited to receive comments from all the way around the world (Pericles 2008) and these comments served as an incredible motivating factor because they suddenly realised that there were people out there who were actually reading what they wrote. Pericles points out that the most powerful part of blogging is the ability to comment – and this opens up a conversation between the author and the audience and makes the experience not only interactive but highly meaningful. supportive, encouraging and constructive critical comments on blog posts from the wide world (apparently the class blog gets 1300 hits a day from a wide variety of countries) is an incredible motivating factor. Everyone wants to perform well for an audience of thousands.

 Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6