my first response is to see the use of blogs in an arts environment. my shcooling days were spent being told to "reflect on your drama class, what have you learnt?" a question one soon grows tired of hearing. the task actually became quite challenging at times when there was nothing inspirational about the class to write about. what was nice about the task was when we could reflect on others work. who got to read this reflection? the teacher and no one else received the positive feedback other students wrote for each other nor did they receive any suggestions for thigns to try differently to achieve greater things. blogs become therefore, a very public and open communication tool to share on a wider level ones thoughts and feelings. not only do they allow for an individual to share their thoughts but how nice if a whole class of students were to agree with the posting that a student had done a delightful performance.
i truly beleive blogs open up a whole new place for students to explore and share, where they may not feel the security to do so in a standard classroom setting.
--> this is a very traditional sense of the use of blogs, basically utilising the system of a diary. however, they do allow for this diary to be made extremely public and i think this can have its benefits in certain areas and obvisouly, with certain rules or guidlines for use put in place by students and teachers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your comment, but how can you control for constructive feedback on the performance? And what if there are NO comments about an individual? It is a very public conversation that although perhaps in the writers' - the students'- advantage, it can be hard to maintain from a teacher's perspective.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's any issue with starting with a fairly traditional diary-style use of blogs (see my comment on Blythe's post at http://doctor-blythe.tumblr.com/post/438381675/we-would-like-to-buy-your-constructivist-paradise), especially because, as you say, making the diary public changes certain things about it. Research suggests that when students write for a wider audience - whether that's class peers, or the whole internet - they tend to invest themselves more intensely in the task. There's also the possibility of wide feedback.
ReplyDeleteOf course, as Sara mentions, there's also the danger of no feedback - but that's where, as a teacher, you need to set up a structure where, for example, each student has to comment at least twice a week on others' blogs. At the same time, the teacher needs to keep the overview and to check at least once a week that every student has received at least some comments.
That leads to the question/duty of the teacher as moderator, pretty much as per forums (blog comments being mini-forum at times).
ReplyDeleteI believe that you are spot on as to the good points.
My worry : The underlying idea, of use as reflective space re activities, reminds me of a student saying "Oh no, another excursion - they'll expect us to write nice things about it no matter how crap it was. And draw pictures." The teacher thought she was being Constructivist. For the reticent student, or the one with dissenting opinions, I see it as an electronic torture if the teacher is not very, very careful.
Hi Kate
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your ideas of linking it to the Arts.
As I was searchig for "Love Never Dies", as mentioned by Matthew, I found on YouTube videos of children who had obviously posted their singing and or playing of muscial instruments on the web. Reading your post gave me the idea of how this could be easily linked into a blog between children. Children can "post" their video and get feedback on line from others re their performance. Saves the lugging of the instrument to school, and security, risk of damage issues.
Averil, those are good ideas about the use of YouTube - and the embedding of YouTube videos in blogs.
ReplyDelete