After reviewing countless blogs from teachers of different subjects, I discovered a myriad of new ideas and I was also able to think of possible suggestions to some of the ideas that I read. The blogs provided proved to be an excellent method of remaining in contact with the teacher when the teacher wasn't available. Some blogs that I found to be particularly interesting were those composed by the students themselves. Additionally, I found what I thought to be the most interacting ways that content area teachers were using blogs are listed below.
- Links- The blogs can be used as a liaison between parents and teachers in an attempt to keep current on coursework, grades, and information regarding the students.
- Support- Blogs can provide external links to other sites that may be of assistance to students when they require additional instruction for assignments.
- Discussion- Many times, creating a topic for discussion encourages students to engage in thought-provoking conversations with their classmates which in turn, creates the opportunity for the discussions to branch out and students learn to respects views different than their own.
- Video- Video blogs were used by some teacher as an addendum to the lesson recently taught. Also, they could provide supplementary material that would help the student fully understand concepts.
I currently do not have a class to test these ideas out with, but if I did, I would measure my success by grading them. This way, I could ensure that each student actively participated in the discussions. For example, each student would post to the discussion thread. After, they would post to the person above and below their post. The first and last people to post would in turn post to each other. Occasionally, I would comment on a few, just to keep the conversation going. The students would be graded on clarity, the relevance of their post to the topic being discussed, and the responses made to other students.
