How might you use a blog with students? How might they respond to a blog assignment? What concerns about blogging with students do you have? How might you use a blog for other educational purposes (other than with students)?
In our media literacy class, students have created blogs as part of our magazine unit and our celebrity/hero unit. We have an English teacher in our building who has students do reader's responses to the novels they read through blogging. Some students write a lot, some barely write what's required. My concern about blogging, is that because it is computer based, and CAN be informal, students often use what I call "instant messaging/texting" sentence structure and spelling. It's important to instruct students that even though they are writing a blog, there is still the potential for a formal audience, thus formal language must be used. Otherwise, we'll get messages that include phrases like, "idk, my bff Jill?" :-)
I'd like to see blogs developed for media literacy and media production teachers to share ideas and concerns regarding curriculum. This would provide yet another venue for teachers to find others with similar interests as well as people who might be able to share skills.
1 comment:
I was just involved in a discussion yesterday about students "texting" instead of writing on their blogs. As a teacher, it's important to set the expectation that writing on a blog is true writing and nothing less. If students understand what a broad audience their blogging could potentially have, it may be an incentive to write more carefully.
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