Blogging

Blogging Assignment﻿: Reviews of articles about blogs  1. [] I googled "blogs in the social studies classroom" and this is the first site that came up. It was a slideshow presentation that had some good information about things to do and things to avoid when trying to use blogs in the classroom. It had practical advice like getting permission slips from parents and warning students about the fact that what they post can be seen by anyone - even a parent. It gave me a few ideas for how I could incorporate blogs into my classroom and had some links to other websites that had good discussion questions that a teacher could use to have their students respond to. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. 2. A second article I read about blogs was by Fred Risinger, a columnist for Social Education magazine, called Using blogs in the Classroom: a new approach to teaching social studies with the internet. He observed that a classroom blog provides a way for students to view homework assignments, discuss important issues, ask questions and receive feedback from other students, and could provide parents with an opportunity to see what's going on in the classroom and even contribute their ideas and knowledge. He provides links to other articles about blogging in the classroom and websites teachers can visit to see how other teachers implement blogs with theiir students. This article was more about singing the praises of blogging in classes rather than how to implement. While several of the links no longer worked because the article is 4 years old, I still added a couple of links to my "favorites" folder. About 2.5 out of five stars. Not as helpful as the first article.

3. The third article I read wasa link to the Top 10 Social Studies/History Blog. Jackpot! This was truly helpful because it had a bunch of links to other websites and blogs which had materials that I could immediately implement in my classroom. I connected to sites that had all sorts of media that both I and students could use in projects and presentations. I have a 1942 Superman cartoon playing on another tab as I write this that I hope to use to talk about how cartoons have been used as propaganda. While this site isn't directly about using blogs in the classroom, it has several links to actual teachers' websites that do use blogs so I can see how they have used them. 5 out of 5 stars.

Blogging Discussion Questions: ** How can I use Blogs in my classroom? ** ** I teach social studies so I think that blogs could be really useful if implemented correctly. I think that I could have students find a current event, summarize it and then give their opinion about how they perceive the issue and its impact on them or others. ** ** Additionally, I think that I could find a current event myself, require the students to read about it and then post their comments. ** ** I could also use a blog somehow to have students prove their achievement of unit objectives. If I created 10 objectives for a unit, I could have students post their evidence of having achieved the objectives and then comment on those objectives as proof of their having met the standard. ** ** Blogs might be used to draw in quieter students who may not speak up in class. It would allow me a chance to see what they know. All students would be required to answer questions, not just the few who raise their hands. ** ** Where will Blogs fit into my curriculum? ** ** I think that I could use blogging in most parts of my curriculum, its all in the implementation. They could be useful on a unit by unit basis as an assessment tool. Blogs could also be used to have students responding to current events. ** ** Students could be asked to blog about what was done in class today. This would be difficult to accomplish in my classroom because of a lack of hardware and network support; and many of my students do not have internet access at home. ** ** What is the purpose of blogging in the classroom? ** ** The purpose and glory of blogs is to have students take ownership of their learning and to engage more with the information that they are coming into contact with. They can also communicate more deeply and more often with their peers. It gives students a chance to become better writers and thinkers. **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 12.5pt;">