Salla's Blog

Questions about Educational Blogging

• How can adults be “taught” to use the internet not like classical media?
• How do have educational blogs to be changed to increase active participation – and I talk only about comments and discussions?
• What are the fears of adults to write a blog? How can they be reduced?
• How does a virtual learning environment look like which motivates adults to write an own blog or even participate at all?
• What does adults motivate to share their thoughts and learning experiences?

People often go with the social pressure. We do what people around us do. I have my doubts about teaching adults to use internet in a new way, it’s more about raising awareness. We shouldn’t tell too much about all the possibilities but concentrate in a few. Too much information is never good! Adults should be made to see that others use internet in a “new” way, too. So that they could see, that it’s not hard at all and makes for example teaching easier. We need great examples and stories told from real-life to convince adults. Some of us need scientific results to get convinced.

Educational blogs should be made more simple and easier to use. If you have to think even for two seconds, how to leave comments, you won’t do it. I think that’s the fact usually. Comment boxes should be done so, that viewers can straight away (or at least easily) see, that others have commented, too. It’s more encouraging to take part to a conversation than to think “I’m the only one to comment”… It should be made clear that you can also leave comments anonymously and, I don’t know if it’s possible, leave private comments which only the writer of the blog can read.

I think the biggest fears are about sharing private thoughts, pictures, information… So  the reality should be made clear; which things you can safely publish online. You can also make a blog under a password, you can give them, you want to. We should also discuss about Facebook and other applications, that aren’t private either. If you feel comfortable about writing your thoughts and uploading your pictures there, you should remember that data there is not private at all. Could writing a blog be actually more safe than using facebook etc.?

As I’ve noticed during this course, it’s very hard to proof people why they should use educational blogging as a part of teaching. We seem to be very suspicious. In my opinion, the fact still is that teachers have to update their methods. I think that all the suspiciousness and fear of changes is, in the end, very frustrating. Kids use computers all the time, so blogs and other online education medium could be an easy way to get closer to your students. But the genius who knows how to make teachers (as well as other adults) stop fearing changes, well, really is a genius!:)

This is our task now: “The Web 2.0 in the Classroom Blog lists 33 ways on how to use blogs in education. Please select one way or describe a new one which you like best and connect it to any educational theory.” “Create a blog where students list class hypotheses before each class science experiment. When experiment is done, results can be posted and compared to initial hypotheses.” I chose this idea, because most of the ideas were pretty simple and already familiar to me. Most of them also sounded like tasks you can also do just without any blogs.

I think it’s a great idea to write down your hypotheses and read others’ suggestions, too. That’s an important part of learning process. It’s a very effective way of learning to compare the new information with your old thoughts. Well, learning does mean new ways to think! It’s also important to see that everyone has their own prejudices and bias and ways to think. It’s a big part of learning to be able to describe why you make certain hypotheses. “Consciously identify what you already know” is one metacognitive strategy for effective learning (http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/metacognition/start.htm). I think this blogging task support pupils’ metacognitive skills, too. When you write down your hypotheses and afterwards the results and then compare them, the learning becomes visible. It’s very useful to think through why your hypotheses worked out or not. For example J. Bruner’s Constructivist theory supports this, “learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge” (http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html).

“Do you think engaging students could be enough as a reason to use twitter blogs, wikis and other stuff in school? How about students who would prefer the “traditional” way of classes?”

I think that in order to use (micro)blogs in education, teachers and pupils should know the applications throughout. They aren’t something you can use just once to motivate your pupils, then the meaning will stay too shallow. I think it’s very hard to be an expert enough about these applications in order to get all the advantages. And if the pupils don’t know how to us them, (micro)blogging can just confuse them instead of motivating.

The optimal situation would be that those who prefer using blogs etc. could use them, but the others could just stuck to the traditional ways. But I’m not yet sure if that’s even possible. At the moment my knowledge and skills concerning twitter, blogs and wikis as educational tools aren’t good enough. I couldn’t, yet, use them to help my pupils. After reading all the articles about this issue I’ve also became a bit skeptic, so I don’t think that motivational/engaging reasons alone aren’t enough to encourage me to use blogs etc. in education.

I searched the internet to find ways to use microblogging (like Twitter) at school. Here I introduce you some of the articles/pages I found with my own comments.

I think there’re a lot of similar advantages between blogging and microblogging as educational tools. That’s why I’m now trying to find more specific issues concerning just microblogging.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2286799/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities:

“Twitter can be used as a viable platform for metacognition.” If the pupils have to write their twitter-updates about school works and learning, they really have to think carefully what they’ve done or how they feel, while there’re only 140 signs to use.

“For reference or research”. I think the best parts of microblogging compared to blogging are on this area. It’s faster and easier to find new, helpful information this way. Twitter is also an easier channel to connect people than ordinary blogging, I think.

“Teachers make themselves available”. I think that’s a very important aspect. Of course teachers shouldn’t be available all the time but pupils may feel comfortable about reaching their teachers via Twitter than for example calling. And through Twitter you can send a message to each whenever you want to. Well, as the article points out, that can be a bad side, too. Pupils can intrude teacher’s private life then, too.

http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/printer_1122.php

In this article you can find some very good points of view and criticism, too. You shouldn’t be too optimistic about microblogging. Multitasking during the lessons can be very disturbing for most of students. A teacher may have a really pretty picture about using for example Twitter as a helping tool in classroom, but in the end it may just distract pupils and they miss the point teacher is trying to tell them. As a becoming  special educator I’m happy that in this article also students with special needs have been noticed.

http://adifference.blogspot.com/2007/07/twitter-ephemeral-learning-tool.html

“For me, the pedagogical virtue of twitter (or anything like it: jaiku, pownce, IM, etc.) is how it can be used to make students’ thinking transparent; to the teacher and each other.” This is something that seems very useful and scary to me at the same time.

“While I give a lecture students tweet their thoughts about it to each other. Comments that clarify or question what I am saying. They can also tweet any confusions they have as they arise”. That seems like a very frightening picture to me. I prefer real face-to-face discussion in classroom.  And who really could be able to listen to the teacher lecturing and use microblogs at the same time? If I was meant to do those tasks together I would just get nervous and confused. Darren Kuropatwa suggests also in this article that mobile phones could be used in classroom, to help twittering. That’s something I’m strictly against! There’s no possibility the teacher could make sure that pupils aren’t, for example, just sending textmessages to their friends..