Monday, March 5, 2007

Blogs and Pedagogy

As I prepare to present a faculty professional development workshop on Collaborative Teachnig and Learning Tools (March 19), I am struggling with the pedagocial value of blogs. I have read Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, and appreciate his wisdom on the subject, but most of the classroom blogs I view are really substitutes for on-line course management systems to post assignments, readings, etc. What matters to me is whether kids will learn better using a blog. Will they read and write better? Will they find meaning in mathematical or scientific topics that were elusive previously? Will's Secret Life of Bees blog, in which students communicated with the author, shows a level of understanding beyond the normal class discussion of a book. Some of Will's points regarding blogs are very appropriate:

  • Potential audience - relevance of student work no longer ends with the teacher or the classroom door is a powerful motivator.
  • Archive learning that teachers and students do, facilitating all sorts of reflective and metacognitive analysis that was previously more cumbersome.
  • Supports different learning styles - for those students reticent in class.
  • Enhance the development of expertise in a particular subject - broader scope of learning.


If Will's hypotheses are a good explanation of the learning process, it would appear that we should be rethinking the writing process in schools. Let's see how my colleagues respond to these propositions.

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