Blogs in Education

1) Google was my first choice for a search engine. I have definitely formed an addiction to Google over the years and was curious to see how it would compare to other engines. The first few sites were: Educational Weblogs, Kathy Schrock’s Home Page, and Top 100 Education Blogs. I moved onto Dogpile, which is supposed to be comprised of a variety of search engines, including Live search, Google, and Ask Jeeves. I found that its first few sites were identical to Google’s sites! Finally, I went to Ask Jeeves, and got some different results, including: Educational Blogs, Blogs for Your Students, and Free Blogs for Educators. I suppose the results were varied because of what each search engine company is affiliated with. I’ve heard that some engines get paid to basically “advertise” a searched page. I don’t know if that’s what made the difference in these instances, but it’s a possibility.

2) After perusing some different educational blogs, including the ones listed on the assignment page, I found that blogs are becoming incredibly prominent for technologically aware schools and educators. A major use of blogs in the K-12 classroom seemed to be as a form of “collaboration” between educators. On edublogs.org, you could share lesson plans with teachers across the internet! You don’t have to know the teacher, but you can bounce ideas with others across the nation, giving a much wider perspective. I also noticed a lot of blogs encouraged student-blogging, in which students could have online discussions of topics. This allows for a quicker sparking of interests and views than the typical homework assignment might allow. Finally, the third innovative use for a blog was through newsletters. I have noticed in my practicum this semester that the teacher sends newsletters home with her 2nd graders. She complained, though, that often times, those letters just don’t make it home for some reason or another. I can imagine that using an online newsletter blog would be immensely useful, especially for children at a younger age. This whole process could save paper, ensure delivery (assuming parents kept tabs on the blog), and make the teacher’s life less stressful.

3) I had never heard of “RSS readers/aggregators” before this research, but after finding the definition, I realize that I have been exposed to these aggregators. RSS readers/aggregators are basically an application for compiling (or “aggregating”) specified web content into a single location. These web contents can include news headlines, podcasts, blogs, etc., whatever the client desires. These act as a sort of “personal newspaper” that are specified to your desires! It also takes away the annoyance of searching a bunch of different internet sites for all the different headline stories! RSS readers can be used in the classroom to help guide student learning by compiling a bunch of resources for them into one place. This can eliminate stumbling over inappropriate content and get students quick information fast. I think they could also be a great tool for compiling information on a “class website” that can be accessed by students throughout the classroom.

4) Using RSS readers and blogging would have a tremendous impact in a K-12 classroom. First of all, the internet is such a prominent “way-of-life” in our nation that students need to be able to zoom around on it without confusion. Having these RSS readers and blogs would begin to help them see the full extent of the internet’s ability. Blogging itself could give a place for students to share opinions and ideas while gaining insight from others. The only fear I have from blogging is the elimination of face-to-face contact. Used moderately and appropriately, blogging would be time efficient and give students a place to discuss outside of the classroom. However, I wouldn’t want my class to solely depend on the computer screen “curtain.” Overuse of the internet and these technologies could cripple students’ abilities to converse in person, which is still a vital skill in our world. RSS readers could also hinder abilities to seek out desired information. Used in moderation, both can be helpful, but they shouldn’t completely replace other forms of communication and research.

5) As described in question four, blogs and RSS readers can be a positive for the K-12 classroom. They enable students to find information quickly (in the form of content-specified RSS readers) and to share ideas and opinions (in the form of blogs). Blogs can be a fantastic place to write teacher-parent newsletters, which eliminates the messy paper-trail. There are some down-sides to these technologies, though. Blogs can take away from the face-to-face contact that is vital in our society. All too often these days, it seems that people can’t discuss things in person. They would rather shy behind the computer screen so that they don’t have to be directly accountable for the ideas they share. RSS readers can take away from the research component that comes with searching for desired content. Having everything you want and need catered to your desires and convenience will hinder students if they don’t learn the process of finding information on their own. Again, used in moderation, both blogs and RSS readers can be beneficial.