ElasTECHlearning

I’m going to be talking today about blogging in education to the CCSD 62 Instructional Services team. I thought I would write a new post to them, then low & behold I see that one of my current favorite bloggers, Jeff Utecht, just wrote about this same topic! Jeff is the Technology Specialist for the Shanghai American School. He is also a very clear & concise writer.

In Jeff’s most recent post, Communicating from the Classroom, he talks about teachers starting off using blogs as a simple classroom website. The allure here is the ease of use afforded by (most) blogging platforms. Posting homework, files, & reminders are all super simple. But there is a transformation to be made.

Now, before I go any further I say they “use blogs” but that doesn’t mean they are blogging. I do believe there is a difference. Teachers find the ease of which you can setup a web site and post new content using a blogging program simple and straight forward.

This is also an idea that Will Richardson writes about a lot.

When I post to my blog, it not only has a chance to be read by a billion people, it also lives on in the Google-able and Technorati-able world of content. It also gets linked to by other people having other conversations. And it also creates a real sense of ownership of the ideas and the membership in the community.

I know this transformation is hard to get your head around. Don’t I just want to connect with my students? My parents? My community?

If you look at the Illinois State Standards, or the NETS Standards for that matter,  you can start to see the power of blogging. The ability for us to communicate with our students, connect to outside experts, primary sources, fact checkers, or just other frames of reference allow us to revisit & revise or argue & authenticate!

Other educators are asking the same questions we are: How do I teach this? How can I invigorate learning in my class? How can I possibly help get my school off the AYP watch list?

Using a blog as your daily planner of classroom activity is a great idea. So is connecting to other people and engaging in reflective conversation, using new tools for learning in class (nod to John Davitt!), and enhancing everyone’s understanding of information literacy.