(Apologies for my lengthy absence from my blog, as I have been unwell)
Blogs, Wikis and Websites; the last of these three existed in the 1.0 world...but the first and second are purely 2.0 technologies, i.e. they are second generation & interactive software platforms accessible for input by public or selected respondent readers. But to be quite honest, HTML code freaks me out now as much as Basic or Pascal did when I was a teen (although today, user-friendly interfaces of many blogs and wikis automate such programming code). Thankfully, non-programmers like myself are catered for today, after all, functionality is a must-have for software in the computer revolution.
Teaching with these web-based digital technologies can be teaching tools which can be scaffolded by many different activities, but I find some digital tools are more disposed towards effective and engaging teaching than others. The following are some reflections on Group 1 digital technologies, the last of which is a SWOT analysis exploring how I might use blogs (most familiar to me and most favored of this technology group) in my future teaching:
Websites
Now I have been using websites (internet spaces) for many years to access new information, for learning, recreation and work, but there seems to be a great deal of transparency about Web 1.0 software (in accessing the sites, not programming the code that forms them) compared to Web 2.0 technologies. The average web-user/learner can really only read/source website information, and for teachers, they can very well provide a great deal of control over website content, especially if they design and produce their own website). However, current learning theories inform teachers to provide a greater range of learning experiences than the traditional, teacher-controlled approaches provide.
Websites are great for setting up knowledge resources and repositories, and they can provide students any number of literacy extensions, but generally websites can not themselves channel collaborative learning as there are no respondents, only readers. Although sourcing website information is a vital skill for the modern leaner, and literacy should be extended in many different reading contexts, I regard websites as transparent technologies. Accessing websites is a rudimentary skill, of the same adaptive calibre as using Microsoft Word or sending an email; such is the evolution of modernity. Although, accessing websites would not be quite so easy without the use of search engine software such as Google or Bing or without browsing software such as Mozilla or Internet Explorer, websites can be useful in a spectrum of learning from teacher-directed (controlled) to exploratory and self-directed learning. (An appropriate post-note would be that I am not gifted in programmer or computer code, which makes programming or web based design seem quite alien to me, and therefore from that perspective, it is not quite so transparent a technology!)
Wikis
The idea of a wiki was alien to me, but it has some promise as a teaching tool. The topic/learning covered can be almost limitless, which enhances the interactive capabilities of wikis and which can only engage students more so. Wikis, as digital tools, can be very easily scaffolded with other learning exercises such as SWOT, PMI, or Compare & Contrast. The collaborative element in wiki evolution is perfect for ensuring all students may contribute to the collective knowledge, and it is easy for teachers to recognize the advancing/struggling students at each stage of the wiki evolution. The beauty of wikis (unlike forums or blogs) is that you can teach with them one lesson or unit, and then move onto something else. It remains able to be sourced again in the future so long as the wiki-web-site server is maintained.
Wikis can become truly unwieldy and very repetitive as contributors tend to re-invent the knowledge wheel with uninspired inputs. However, a moderator (such as a teacher or student on extension learning) can be deployed to edit, refine, transcribe, or even condense the morass of wiki information into a referentially useful form.
Blogs
I would describe blog (web-logs) as an online serial of writings, where the blogger/author presents content and has editorial rights, and also where readers may have right of reply (i.e. input/commentary). This technology can provide teachers and learners with a chance to engage in learning a limitless potential of different content topics. The power of the web (to enable learners & teachers to draw upon the world's collective knowledge) has a great presence in blogs due to; increasing user-friendliness and versatility of blog software interfaces, the capacity for respondent-input, and having significantly more directionality and focus than wikis.
Above: Leslie (2003) describes in this table some blog possibilities in uses of blogs in education (and locates them in relationship proximity.)
The beauty of educational blogging is such that they are by nature pro-literacy tools for students, that is, they are readily adaptable to encouraging development of such learner skills as reading, critical thinking and persuasive writing. They can be used by the blog-creator (perhaps teacher) to sponsor not only their own discourse, but also high order thinking such as logic and reasoning to support argument. This can be not only beneficial to the students individual learning, illumination of the entire learning collective (class) and perhaps even the broader community. For example, greater numbers of learners with the accomplishment of mastering abstract cognitive and creative processes of applying logic and reasoning.
Students demonstration of proficiency in dialectical style of argument in geographical or historical disciplines is would be supported by educational blogging. I can easily see the development of my SOSE/Geography lesson plans productively incorporating a blog/s, but even music theoretical explorations, music history discourse or even practicum blog (journal) entries could be channeled in the same vein.
Access to certain information and arguments can stimulate actual fighting, even via cyber-space. Consider, for example, the latest revolutions of the 'Arab Spring' and the role the web, social networks and smart phones have played in transmission of a new political paradigm. Blogs in schools are really no different, except other controls exist like that contributor identities protected by anonymity in an open blog (or identifiable in a closed blog community) and offer such extra functions using nicknames or avatars (an icon representing a particular contributor, depending upon blog rules and moderation). Yet, in fact the dynamics of the debates in blogs can become quite fierce, and sorely unproductive and dysfunctional, if not heavily moderated either by enforcement (by creator or other official blog moderators) or self-regulating contributors. Threats can be made or abuse posted, so close monitoring and behavioural support is vital to nip problems in the bud, stopping them before they spill out from cyberspace to reality. In my experience, public blogs can be somewhat of a cut 'n' thrust scenario, but the power to edit unwanted posts is truly significant in teaching with blogs, as teachers under so much public scrutiny.
Where inputs become inflammatory, legal parameters may come into play over editing decisions, so laws and other regulations such as mandatory or voluntary codes of conduct are appropriately considered by the blog-creator. Teachers actually have an advantage in that whilst they're managing online behaviour, because a strong code of conduct exists or older ones can be modernized. Whilst teachers perform editing processes, students will also develop some compliance with codes of conduct. Teachers blogging can be supported by the entire behaviour support structure of a faculty/school/department (behaviour management plans or matrices, teacher obligatory reporting, integrated reporting systems, operational management and communications, network filtering, departmental codes of conduct, peer observations and behaviour, etc).
Of course, teachers should take careful considered whether lesson blogs are set up as publicly accessible or for selective students or perhaps other specific people within school communities (e.g. parents or even the P&C) and ensuring lesson conformity with school expectations of online conduct should be discussed and clearly recognized at a faculty or departmental management level. I suggest that if bad postings occur, (and the more public the posting, the greater the imperative for editing such posts in/out of the blog) then the professional and legal responsibility for any damage caused will rest with the teacher in managing behaviour of their students online.
Using blogging as a teaching tool creates other control issues for teachers. Aside from online conduct, teachers may need monitor the relevance of discourse and vet mischief from the contributory mix. I envisage investigating vetting options blog membership and contribution rules such as whether interested observers (again such as parents or faculty leaders) may read the blog and monitor learnings.
In future, I intend to use blogging as a tool to pedagogically weave together discourse in 'threads' (a term referring to blog lines of discussion), as such in lesson plans within my unit planning and teaching delivery. I can foresee that blog postings will act as journals marking progress of learning. Also the inclusion of other digital tools within a blog post is very likely to enhance the learning experience derived from teaching with blogs; e.g. embedded digital video or a prezi.
My first experience with Blogs was actually around 2006; when I first became aware of Andrew Bolt's blog. This opinion-editor/columnist has been writing and blogging for the Herald Sun website since 2002. Creating my own blog actually was reminiscent of using Bolt's blog, and that previous blogging experience came in handy for posting/editing etc. This was my first inside experience with application of HTML code. Much of the user-interface of that blog was based on automated HTML inputs (e.g. if you inserted a link through shortcuts and clicking options, the HTML code appeared in it's place where you set it). Other illuminating blogs I have participated in have invariably been around the various elections that are held and live-blogging becomes caught up in the results as they are returned. Personally, whilst in a couple such live-blogs, I felt like history was in the making and I was right there to witness it be a part of it. Politics aside, imagine if we were able to get a working musician or stage technician in Melbourne or Tamworth to live-blog with students covering a Professional development music course? The more famous the guest blogger the better!
So my personal experience with blogging has included a great deal of learning from contributors (potentially from any point on the globe) and, in particular, a great deal of refining my own knowledge base and dialectical skill. (Some of the fiercest and most exhilarating debates have been involved in have occurred via the political or social threads of blogs!) However being a blog-creator, as opposed to merely a blog-contributor, puts teachers in a very powerful and responsible position.
Establishing my own blog has been interesting, such as working out how to embed pictures (.jpg files) or video (.mov files etc). Yet, there is still so much I have to learn about on the technical side on blog design and creation. Posting and editing my own comments was fruitful as the posted material is not 'cast in bronze', so corrections and changes could be made as required. Perhaps I will increase both my blogging and pedagogical skills by learning more about HTML code. Hopefully I will continue blogging long into my teaching career (and beyond perhaps?) in order to provide some structure and record of my journey as an educator and life-long learner.
SWOT analysis of Blogs
Strengths:
Collaborative medium between Blog creator/author (teacher) and audience (students).
Editorial control of posts is maintained by creator (teacher).
Publicly accessible or may be set to selective audience (students, nominated others such as parents, faculty staff, etc)
Develops reading, writing, and critical thinking skills in students.
Outside participants may be included in the blog as a unique human resource (e.g. a real-world expert such as a State Museum historian or curator could be a regular contributor to a blog about regional or provincial museums in Australia)
Class blogs create a repository for the collective knowledge of the whole learner-cohort.
Blogs create opportunity for discourse and developing high order thinking in students such as dialectical skill of applying abstracts in reason and logic to an argument.
Commentary may come from teacher or peers, which can inform other students of particular knowledge rudiments in any topic.
Debates and arguments which develop persuasive writing can be encouraged and managed.
Blog postings and commentary can provide teacher with knowledge and learning markers for individual students.
Can be designed for lessons with any age of learner.
Can embed other technologies such as digital video, pic or prezi in a blog to serve other learnings or text types.
Blogs may be set up primarily as a reading or writing blog, or combination of both types.
Limitless possibilities for blogging thread topics.
Can be used for assignment construction and transmission, research projects, reflective journals, and many learning activities that can be perform in real classrooms.
Weaknesses
As educational blogging can be somewhat teacher-centric moderated, so wielding the power of control over dialogue and over the students approach to assessments and lessons can be too heavy handed by the creator (teacher).
Online conduct creates new behaviour management dimensions for teacher to monitor & support/manage.
Scaffolding and scaffold activity is required for teaching with blogs.
Lacks nuances of face-to-face communication (e.g. expressing & interpreting aspects of facial expression &, body language)
Lacks nuances of verbal/oral tradition (e.g. tone of voice, cadence, articulation, phonetic awareness) unless specifically catered for by embedding via other technologies (e.g. embedded video/picture or a prezi).
Mastery of HTML code is difficult, although beneficial, for those who seek greater proficiency in blog development.
Publicly accessible blogs increases aspects of public scrutiny of teachers work and student learning, bringing it out of the school into cyberspace.
School or faculty management can't 'pop into for a visit' if the classroom is in cyberspace and students are geographically at a distance.
Technology and HTML programming may require additional teacher training.
Automated HTML user interfaces discourages those students of some promise who might otherwise learn the code (getting the 'hang of' the new language).
Blogging requires computers & ICT support which can be resource intensive/expensive, and the capacity to be 'online' is rapidly becoming a staple of modern civilization (in the developed world at least), so increases the gap between those of the 'haves' & the 'have nots'.
.Opportunities
Students enhance may enhance their comprehension skills and learn to create new meanings.
Pedagogical research into educational blogging and how it (may) correlate to other favorable and measurable literacy improvements may assist educators further unlock great leaps forward in teaching practice.
Reading, writing and critical thinking, and other high order processes may targeted simultaneously by blogging by teacher-directed threads or by student-directed/exploratory threads.
As technology gets cheaper and more transparent, blogging may become a more popular and accessible as a teaching tool.
The combination between blogging and other technologies such as embedded video, prezi, audio, pictures partially compensates for loss of the nuances of oral and/or face-to-face communication.
Live augmentations to a reading/reading-writing blog may be embedded such as an internet radio/chat room program or even a live blogging experience perhaps with special guest bloggers (real world perspectives).
Globalization of local knowledge (potentially in despite of any distance) is supported in shared activity and collaboration between all blog participants and creator.
Exchange of ideas and knowledge may occur via the conduit of cyberspace via inter-cultural collaborators who might never otherwise gain such opportunity to see any other aspects of diversity..
Threats
Self-direction and exploration by student stifled or nullified if teachers do not allow some freedom of learning experience.
Online conduct present increased legal issues (slander, libel, defamation, abuse, threats, conflict, etc) and issues professional and ethical conduct.
Blogging is a tool but can become seen as an end in itself, rather than a means to achieve learnings.
Students without access to resources of more affluent schools and families are potentially going to be marginalized, unable to get full access to the blog/s and learning experiences.
Oral tradition of communication may be overlooked and become seen as somewhat redundant.
Hackers (unwanted cyber-intruders) and trolls (unwanted abusers, transgressors of the blogs rules and codes of conduct).
Ill-managed blog debate/dialogue can produce political adversaries and encampment of divisive political opinions, even where only inoffensive ignorance may have existed before.
Unchecked debate may lead to broader conflict in the class/learning community, especially without appropriate conciliation and moderation by the teacher/assistant.
REFERENCES
Wittner,R, 2005, Basics - Why use blogs in formal education?, EU Leonardo project eReport, date accessed: 10/4/2011, accessed at:
http://www.sbg.ac.at/zfl/eTeaching_Skills/eTeaching_Weblogs/basics.html
Various contributors, 2011, Infinite Thinking Machine Blog - Blog '...designed to help teachers and students thrive in the 21st century', accessed: 10/4/2011, accessed at:
http://www.infinitethinkingmachine.org/stuff/Blogger.pdf
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