EduBlog Insights

A high school student in my blogging group found a thought-provoking article entitled “Cheating Gets You Nowhere”.

Click on student papers.The article was written by a college student (T. J. Dougherty) and it

is listed on a page with numerous other articles. Some of the titles

may be inappropriate for students to read. I haven’t read all the other

articles but just the titles will be enough to cause concern.  I

can’t get the link to go directly to the one article. If someone knows

the answer to that, that could solve the problem. I guess I could make

the paper into a pdf but then there are copyright issues, etc. A lot of

these articles would be of high interest to the students in the

blogging class. Some great discussions and blogging could result. And we are going to constantly come up to the problem

of periphereal inappropriate items (does that make sense?).  How do we

pull some out and still not be right in the midst of other links that could cause uproars?

And we have to think about younger students who will be reading the high school student posts. What to do?

I’ve tossed the problem back to the school to see what they think. Just thought I’d toss the issue out for comment and ideas.

As I continue this blogging process, I’ve decided to make a dilemma

category. Wonder how many I will have by the end of the year?

and downs with my high school blogging project. Mostly the downs have

centered around the technology not working well, lack of lab space, and

other glitches that we all experience that have nothing to do with the

instructional part. Plus, never enough time!  To make a long story

short, things are starting to come together but for the first time I

find myself with a group that I can’t just write everything I’d like to

write. I really want to honor these students and not betray their

trust. I want to write more specifically about various happenings but

instinct tells me to wait. My posts on the class blogs ring hollow to

me. I can’t just tell it like it is. Partly that’s because I have a lot

of learning to do and I’ve learned to hold back my tendency to judge

too quickly. I learn a lot more if I think, observe, and then rethink

some more.   One group comes with a bundle of baggage that

has nothing to do with technology or instruction but you have to drive

right through it to get to the learning part. There are curves, paths

and various disruptions that are part of the daily routine. I believe

that the one with the most flexibility ends up exerting the most

influence and I want you to know that I feel like Gumby! I am flexible!

I love this group and they are good thinkers. They don’t know how to

write. They don’t know how to be “appropriate”. And there are a lot of

other don’t know how tos. It is going to be a very unstable group in

that two have already left the class - one quit school and one may have

to go to another type class. I may not have the same group at the end

that I started with in the beginning.  I probably should have this

as a closed blog but that defeats the purpose of what I’m trying to

accomplish. So I am going to persevere and try to learn and see what

will work. One thing is probably a definite - I will learn through

making mistakes. They just can’t be major. The other down which I hope

blogs will help is their lack of writing skills. Initially with every

group I have to pull myself out of the despair I feel when I see the

poor writing by far more of them than there should be. They should be

much further along. So when will we truly make writing a priority in

our schools?

The ups - really neat students who challenge my thinking and still want

to learn despite past experiences that haven’t been the best. I’m

working with a group of  fantastic

teachers who want to learn more about blogging and the new

technologies. They are always willing to go the extra mile to make

learning more relevant for their students. Plus a support system of

blogging buddies I can turn to for guidance, feedback and any kind of

help I need as I keep

trying to figure out how to get those voices out there! Yep, as always

the UPS win! That’s why we teach.