I really enjoyed this module. Creating my own blog has been interesting. I am learning many new skills to share with my students and colleagues.Basic blogging is quite easy, and I feel that the children will pick up this skill very quickly. They have been exposed to word processing skills and are able to insert images and upload web links using other applications, so I believe these skills will transfer over to blogging also.
I think it is great that we are using this application as our assessment tool, so that we can all continue to explore the many features it has. Through the duration of this subject I am planning to learn how to upload video and sound files onto my blog, and if successful teaching the children to do the same!
In class, I have started a blog for my Guided Reading group. They will be publishing book response tasks that they complete in class. To begin with they will be using the blog as a publishing tool. This will give them an opportunity to not only edit their work and explore web publishing techniques, but also explore some of the features available to them through blogging. This will also provide students with the potential to read the work of their peers and self assess. It is an interesting medium and I believe that the children will begin to self edit first draft work more precisely knowing that it will be published for their peers to read.
There are endless opportunities to use blogging within the classroom. In the future I hope that the children will also add book reviews. Children could post blogs evaluating lessons or projects, uploading photographs of projects or creating online portfolios of work completed throughout the year.
Next term my school will be having an ICT meeting among staff where we will showcase some of the projects we have been working on through the year. I am planning to share my blog and excite other teachers to use this platform within their own classes. This can become a sustainable ICT initiative where children from my class can teach children in other grades how to blog.
Blogging doesn't have to be an add on, it can replace some of the pen and paper work that the kids find dreary and give them an exciting new way to present their work. In addition to this, it may be an excellent way for children, who rarely comment during class discussions due to their shyness, to present their thoughts in a non-confrontational way.
