I have been traveling about on the many and diverse blogs of the participants of this course. Cristina wrote a thoughtful post about The role of people’s enthusiasm in learning. She wonders, “Where does the motivation come from? Where do we get our inspiration from? Why do some of us get “high on” learning? why doesn’t everyone react the same way?… I’ve wondered the same things. Then she shared her thoughts on an online meeting with Carla Arena’s new class on the use of blogs. The consensus seemed to be that the community and the networks you are able to cultivate around a class are what makes blogging special. All of this is near and dear to my heart. I have been blogging with students since 2002, mostly elementary kids. I once wrote my rationale for educational blogging and thought I’d share. Also, some lessons learned.
Elementary students are extremely motivated to blog. They feel empowered – they get to have choices, their voices develop, and a community of learning develops that gets to go outside the classroom and connect with and learn from others. That outside connecting audience makes a difference. It is exciting. It is motivating. My first year of blogging brought this reflection from Dane, one of my students. When asked
“If an outsider visited your site, what would you hope he or she would think about it?
I would hope they would think of children as being capable of more than they had first anticipated.
That did it for me. I’ve been blogging with elementary students ever since. I think their voices need to be heard and we adults need to learn how to listen to those voices.
I really love the banner on Cristina’s blog. The young girl skipping down the path really depicts the joy of a learning journey. I feel like I am on board!
I am just learning about blogging and am completely intrigued to see how it empowers kids. I had to go further into this site to see what the kids were actually writing. IT was exciting to see what these kids were thinking. I teach first grade and wonder how I could use blogging…it is difficult to imagine. I wonder if anyone has used it with young children
hwilson,
Take a look at Kathy Cassidy’s first grade classroom in Canada at
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337
Best,
Anne
I am an English teacher with over 15 years of experience. I am from Sri Lanka. All my students are not native English speakers. I’ve used blogging successfully with my children to teach them to write in English. I see that all of them are much more enthusiastic to write on the blog than writing on a paper. Most of my children are under 12 years of age and what I feel is that they feel that they think it is more “cool” to write on a blog than doing the same thing on the paper.
I am a former teacher, & instructor that give motivational courses for people who suffer anxiety from fear of flying. I also do blogs & encourage clients to post comments to get involve. I do see parallels with some students clients that go to my blog at http://www.flyinganxiety.com when I have them post comments on my blog about anxiety they tend to feel more support from various posts from other students.
I am a new teacher and am taking a class on evolving Educational Technologies. In fact, my Masters Program is based on Digital Teaching and Learning. This is a great blog that encourages great use of blogging in the classroom. Students are very engaged by blogging so it’s great to use this engaging tech to involve students further in their learning!
I just finish my master’s too for education & we often use this blog as training assignments. This blog is very resourceful.
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