Final Project

Here is  my final project: a video about my hometown, Kennedy, MN.

Classroom Blogs

I found this week’s reading on using blogs in the classroom in chapter 5 of the Herrington text, “Social Networking in the Classroom” by Paul Allison to slightly contradict itself. Allison made a point throughout the chapter that blogging allows students a chance to write about things that they are passionate about or are naturally curious about and then to find an audience who is just as passionate or curious about the student’s chosen topic. However, while doing this, he kept advocating for the use of the “Be a Blogger!” matrix that lays out in great detail every single step that he expects his students complete while writing their blogs. Everything that his students need to do, from pre-writing to publishing and responding to their peers, is laid out step by step in the matrix. Allison even made a very detailed template for his students to use when responding to their peers’ blog posts. Thus, I think that Allison greatly contradicts himself when he says that blogs allow students to take control of their learning and to become self-guided learners. If his students still need these step-by-step instructions on how to write a blog post, then I don’t think that they are becoming self-guided learners. 

Because of this, I feel that when blogs are used in the classroom for the purposes Allison was promoting, there cannot be quite so many guidelines or steps to follow. I don’t think that blogs are formal writing spaces, and as such, they shouldn’t be restricted with so many steps and guidelines. I feel that giving students the matrix that Allison included in his chapter and requiring students to cross off each box when they complete that step would only make the blogging feel like another homework assignment, something that students were forced to do, which would only decrease their motivation and passion for writing. If our goal for using blogs in the classroom is to get students passionate about writing and learning, then I think that we need to allow them to take ownership not only of the topic and their thoughts, but we also need to allow them to take ownership of the writing process itself.

My resource link is an article that gives advice and tips for how to grade students’ blogs. It also has a few links to articles that focus more generally on using blogs in the classroom.