Journal Four- "Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog"

By Paricia Deubel

In this article, the author believes that Blogs are the new technological development to support learning in the Elementary school years. Blogs allow peer to peer learning because they permit students to generate journals and portfolios, encourage communication with parents and community members, and faculty coaching and classroom management. In normal classroom discussion, usually only a couple of students participate. Other students, whether they have something to say and are just to shy, avoid eye contact with the teacher and hope not to be called on. By using Blogs to engage discussions, students can respond to questions provided by the teacher or other students. Blogs also require that every student respond and participate, compared to the few who engage in the classroom discussions. It also creates a student-student center learning environment, where peer communication is another source of information aside from what is being provided by the teacher. If teachers’ wish to adopt Blogs into their teaching techniques, it is important for them to focus on one or two particular questions, identify expectations, and model examples. The author also gives numerous guidelines and ethical consideration when using Blogs in the classroom.

Questions

1. Do you feel Blogs are an effective way to increase discussions?
2. Do you feel Blogs will have any effect on learning disabled students?

Answers

1. I feel Blog are a great way to ensure that every student in the class in participating in a discussion. By requiring that students post or reply to a question posted by the teacher each week, it allows the teacher to ensure that all students are keeping up with their reading and are not confused.
2. I have always been facisnated when it comes to study the disabilities that affect students in a learning environment. Many students with learning disabilities do not participate in classroom discussions because it takes them much longer to process the question the teacher is asking. If a learning disabled student were asked to respond using a blog, it allows them the needed amount of time to correctly process the question and form an answer. I feel many learning disabled child experience a lot of frustration and anxiety when participating in classroom discussion and I feel incorporating Blogs would help eliminate the tension.