I was reading a post on Theresa’s blog, Grand Rounds, and after reflecting on her topic, I would like to respond in writing here. I’m detailing the process because I’m reminded in her post that often times teachers, parents, and students don’t understand blogging and we’re not doing a good enough job of explaining it’s uses.
Theresa writes about her experience as a staff development specialist and the reluctance she encounters from her participants about the uses of blogs,
So why aren’t more teachers using them? Why aren’t they a part of each and every classroom across this globe?
Lots of reasons, or at least I am told. Here are some I have heard:
1. They are not safe – don’t you watch Dateline?
2. My school blocks all social networking sites.
3. Real life requires pen and pencil, not just a computer. Sure they can type – but they can’t type their state assessment.
4. I don’t have the time to have kids blog when I have content to cover.
5. I don’t have time to learn how to blog so I can teach my students.
6. I don’t blog because I don’t have anything to say – why should I have my kids blog? (Followed by – It’s just an on-line journal!)
7. Blogging doesn’t create real relationships – I want my students to discuss things in class.
8. Blogs are another fad in education– don’t you remember whole language and the damage THAT did?
So often when someone hears about blogging, they quickly categorize it as an on-line journal, or another MySpace, or a different way to IM. I guess it can be those things, but that’s not at all how I’m using it.
I continue to spend about 85% of my on-line time READING what others have to say about education. I don’t walk around thinking about what I want to write about. It’s not the same as when I think about something that’s happened in our lives and then want to remember to tell my husband or my mom about it later.
It’s professional reading, reflecting, and responding. It’s thinking about my audience and what I want to say that potentially can influence thinking or serve a purpose to another educator, student, or parent. It’s about learning. My time spent “blogging”, and by “blogging” I mean reading on-line sources including blogs, writing, and reading comments left on my posts, is all about my own learning. It’s free, it’s accessible 24/7, and it’s what I choose.
That’s what we need to plug into with our students. Not the same old assignments posted on a blog. We can add it to enhance learning or we can just keep doing the same old, same old. The reason I don’t worry about the educators who believe they are the source of all knowledge in the classroom is that our students already have it figured out. Any teacher, or principal for that matter, who thinks she knows everything students need to know, is kidding herself. And no one else. I’m just hoping a few teachers will help guide our students to meaningful learning. When they leave G-Town, students are going to learn about what they choose, not what NYS tells them they have to learn. I hope we do an adequate job of showing them how to learn whatever it is they need to know, not how to receive information and then spit it back out. Who wants an employee who can only do that?
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It is all about learning for me too. As a new blogger, I am still spending 85% of my time looking for things to read :). I really enjoy being able to get my thoughts down and while most of my learning so far has been about myself I know that as my network expands I will learn from others.
Kim,
I SO needed your blog entry for today. In approximately one hour, I shall be sitting in the county office, in a conference room with our IT folks, explaining why our school is blogging and what kind of communication it is we desire from this. They are afraid of the “implications”. They are afraid it’s not safe, which, ironically, is all the more reason to teach blogging safety because our students ARE DOING IT, whether in school or personally from home. IT would prefer to limit blogging to an “inside server” where students and teachers can blog among themselves I’m afraid…..again, writing for a contrived audience and getting no input, community building and no engaging students’ points of view with other thinkers in the field. I’m nervous about this meeting. I want to promote and emphasize the concept that blogging can support curriculum and be safe. We must give students the technology skills they’ll need to be successful after high school and blogging is only one of many powerful web tools that can enable workers of the future to continue learning and develop communities. I hope I can be convincing.
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I commented previously, but fear that it did not log. I enjoy reading your blog, and find it reassuring that an administrator has proudly taken on the role as a blog-evangelist. Whenever we as educators are confronted with the task of giving our colleagues meaning to these new technologies, we must remember that we face uncertainty, insecurity, or just a feeling of that these technologies make their job harder.
The problem lies in the fact that our students, and teachers themselves are living in an age of infinite information. This environment contradicts the environment we were raised in, and trained in. A teacher being told the benefits of blogging, may not see how such a technology can be a benefit. They simply do not see the big picture.
I have a different view obviously; however, I also believe that blogging is being sold to the teachers as an ends, rather than a means. Today’s individual, faced with the infinite world of information, must become an expert information manager. This can be accomplished using a platform of social bookmarking (delicious). In this environment, individuals can effectively gather an infinite amount of information, analyze the information, synthesize this information using tags, and illustrate their individual thoughts using the blogs. I, like many colleagues, was educated with Bloom’s Taxonomy. In my 15 years in the classroom, I have never felt I could adequately teach this idea, in a content rich environment effectively. This has all changed, I now utilize the social bookmarking system to teach students how to manage information, thus achieving Bloom’s.
Institutional change is a slow and very often arduous process. Often times, members of that institutional structure will only conform to change when it is presented to them in the form of a plan. These plans take on many different forms, depending on culture and personality. Remember, there are over 165 patents issued for the simple mouse trap.
I enjoy reading your blog. As a classroom teacher, I find it very reassuring that an administrator has become such a blog-evangelist. All to often, classroom teachers who are confused, overwhelmed, or unsure, do not realize how blogging is part of the bigger picture.
Our students have available to them, a world of information. A world of information that cannot be quantified. This infinite quantity contradicts the traditional educational environment that they were educated in, as well as trained in. Today’s individual needs to recognize that one of the most important skills they MUST possess is the skill to manage an information system.
Social bookmarking is really what bloggers are striving to expose our students to. In a nut shell. Students must develop a platform (delicious) that will allow them to construct and manage a hub of information that empowers their individual thinking powers. This platform allow students to become information gatherers, in a very collaborative manner. Students then analyze the information and synthesize their findings using tags. It is at this point that blogging allows the individual to express their thinking. I know that we as educators want to start infusing this technology in some form, as quickly as possible. However, knowing the pitfalls we face, getting reluctant colleagues to see the value, I believe that we must reevaluate our delivery of this technology. We have been taught for decades about Bloom’s Taxonomy. In my 15 years, I have never been afforded the capacity to directly teach this taxonomy in a content area, as easily as I can with these technological tools.
Change is slow and demands some plan. Remember, there are at least 165 patents for the mouse trap.