This is a quote from Mark Ahlness in a recent Seattle Times story, Teachers art Reaching out to Students with a New Class of Blogs.Â
“Never
in 25 years of teaching have I seen a more powerful motivator for
writing than blogs,” Ahlness said. “And that’s because of the audience.
Writing is not just taped on the refrigerator and then put in the
recycle bin. It’s out there for the world to see. Kids realize other
people are reading what they write.”
The Seattle Times: Living: Teachers are reaching out to students with a new class of blogs
It’s a good, balanced, and fairly comprehensive story about classroom blogging.Â
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And when kids have an audience outside of teacher critique they begin to develop their own voice.
An educational blogger who has given this issue more thoughtful critique than most is Konrad Glogowski a PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. I loved meeting him at the FLNW un conference in New Zealand and learning how he had built a community and then tracked changes in his students writing through time. He blogs about this work at the blog of proximal development Is a great read for educators wanting some depth in the thinking around and about student blogging
For example in most recent post we get an analysis of group work and role of blogging
The reason I don’t devote as much time to group work as most of my colleagues is because I don’t think my students can function well as a group and work collaboratively if, as individuals, they have not had any opportunities to develop their voices, to risk speaking out, to share, explain, and develop their opinions. The individual voice needs to develop first. It needs to be given opportunities to grow and flourish. It is only after learning who I am as a writer and learner that I can successfully and meaningfully contribute to a group.
David, thank you so much for making it a possibility for all of us! – Mark
On Friday I had a discussion with an individual who teaches teachers how to teach about entrepeneurialism. I told him that if I was going to teach about entrepeneurialism I would have students keep blogs. He said blogs about entrepeneurialism. I said blogs about anything. The reason is that if one is going to have a successful blog they most both develop a plan for it and market it – the two most important responsibilities of an entrepeneur. After all the best entrepeneurs have a voice that is recognized clearly.
Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html
Andrew,
Brilliant!
— dave —
My district in ‘fear” of the internet, shot down the idea of my students blogging for class before I could finish the question. Once I said “blog” they stopped listening.