I was required to keep a blog for a school trip to Italy that I went on January of 2010. I only wrote about 10 posts during the trip and I never got the hang of it. I have never been much for journaling; I would rather write a research paper than write my feelings or a creative piece. However, I have broadened my reading sphere by incorporating some blogs that I enjoy to read if I have a free moment. I am looking forward to blogging in this class.
In response to the article entitled "That's Online Writing...", I think it is very commendable to incorporate new areas of technology into a classroom. Often times adults get behind on the update of technology while students and children are more educated than their parents on things like texting, blogging and the newest thing on the Internet. I liked that blogging in the classroom was a learning experience for the teacher as well as her students.
One of the big problems I had while reading this article is thinking that having a classroom be able to blog is a luxury that only a class of middle to upper class students and schools can enjoy. Having a classroom full of bloggers would require either computers or laptops to be made available to the students in schools or at the home of the students. This eliminates most inner city schools and schools where most of the children are below the poverty line. It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that these schools could not participate in such technology advances as blogging.
Wow! I also studied abroad in Italy, but it was in 2006. I find it interesting that blogging has become popular for overseas or study abroad programs. I unfortunately did not have access to internet most of the time and I kept a journal. Of course I only wrote in it the first three day and the last few days. Getting food poisoning from funghi prottichinni put a quick halt to my Italy fetish and I decided to take things in smaller doses and be more of an observer. ; ) Well sorry for the rant about Italy, but your last paragraph hit home with me! I do have a hard time seeing how some schools would have the means to keep up with a daily blog. Also, some of the students would have difficulty blogging at home etc if access is an issue. Last thought, a way to solve some of the negative money issues would be to have an in class computer that is already logged-in for student to blog. This would allow for the students to blog on their own time during morning activities, it could just be another station!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's important for educators to stay on top of trends in technology, but also potentially to serve as a counterpoint to their students. I don't have any doubts my three kids will get the hang of communicating electronically over the years, so I'd love to have a teacher say to them: how have other generations communicated? What's gained or lost by communicating electronically as opposed to methods used previously?
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