As I researched how to bring Blogging into my math classroom I discovered that there are several areas that I must be concerned over before implementation:
Security - my students need the ability to communicate but only with each other.
AUP - Making sure that my students understand what the acceptable use policy is and what is right/wrong behavior
Activity - why are we using blogging and what is it that I am expecting
Grading - how does one grade 'blogging'
To help me with these concerns I found several sites that I think gave me good suggestions for 'my math classroom" -
1. Kidblog - a good site for beginner teacher and students into the world of blogging. This site allows the teacher to set up blogging for her class with control on the privacy aspect what is published.
2. Top-25-blogs-for-math-in-the-classroom - a site that in their classroom or as part of their lessons.
3. Future-of-Math a site that has many excellent resources for taking the world of math and internet communication from prompts to security issues
As I learn more about blogging I start to see that this would be a good way to present higher level questions and have my students 'discuss' solutions. These questions would be beyond the usual classroom questions - but where I would like students to question each others thinking/solutions. Also, this would be a good way to create an ejournal - where my students reflect/discuss/write in response to given prompts.
What I am still researching is how does one 'grade' blogs/posts/ participation. Even in our own graduate level - responding to someone's response is a personal issue - do we just give a participation grade? What if a student says little but what is said is articulate and complete. Is more better?
How many times someone responds - does that earn a higher grade? These are questions I am still grappling with and may not necessarily have a definite answer.
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. Blogging in the classroom leads to a number of concerns that educators have to address, prior to implementation. In addition to student engagement, appropriateness, and cosistency, we must also ensure that we are creating a safe learning environment for our students. Education values privacy and operates vigilantly based on it. Teachers, parents, and students all should be properly guided when participating in a blog or posting.
This exploration can lead to great classroom discussion and perhaps stimulate responses from students and aide in the design of the classroom blog. I think that you grapple with the questions that determine whether blogging will be sustainable in your/our instruction. It can't be without purpose or relevance to our instructional purposes.