Blogs in the classroom?

When asked how I might use a blog with my high school English students, I thought that the answer would be easy to write. It is a natural way for students to journal and post their thoughts to questions I would pose and topics that they might select. I might even be able to have them embed hyperlinks to articles they would use to help strengthen their posts. We would talk about the changing face of journalism. We would talk about how citations would work in an environment where they could link to original documentation, audiocasts, and videocasts. We could spring from that into podcasting and talk about the strengths of different types of presentation for specific reasons.

Then, I really started to think about the topic. I realized that I was coming up with some decent activities. I was even thinking of ways that the students could learn about content specific knowledge and display that knowledge to the world. What I wasn't thinking about was why I wanted to use blogging to do it.

What is it about blogs that I would find appealing for teaching students about American literature? What would the benefit be to teaching through this medium instead of working from a paper journal in the classroom?

The answer that I came up with is this: When students leave my classroom and move on in the world, they will need to know how to use this technology responsibly. They will need to know how to post information for the world to see. They will need to know how to link to sources of information. They will need to be able to produce written work on the web in addition to other ways of presenting information to the world and, by blogging themselves, they would have a better understanding of the ways that other people are communicating. They also need to internalize the fact that they are participants in the world and not just bystanders.

In some ways I feel like a kid at a candy store. There is so much technology out there to teach the kids about and through. We are at the beginnings of a new way of interacting with members of a global society and our students are already using these technologies without guidance.

Notice that I said a kid at a candy store. I don't necessarily feel like I am able to buy all those glittering, shining, colorful treats. I started thinking about blogging and standardized tests. I haven't seen any multiple choice questions on our state assessment that ask about the benefits of blogging or which technological source would be the best to use if trying to get information across to Generation N. Blogging is to _________ as paper is to __________...etc.

In a high stakes testing world with an emphasis on the basics, I find myself wondering where the line is between preparing my students to be able to complete the items on a typical standardized test and preparing them with the skills they will need to be successful as members of a digital society. While one could make the argument that if I taught my students effective writing through blogs, they would make gains on standardized tests, one could also argue that the time I spent teaching them how to blog is time I did not spend teaching them grade level content as approved by my district.

Understanding literature and literacy is a journey of discovering how the written word has changed and been shared over time though. It is not simply a set of multiple-choice questions about grammar. When looking at standardized testing versus the skill of blogging, I find that I want to include blogging as an essential tool in my classroom because the Internet is changing the way that we understand information in much the same way the printing press did.

Blogging is a way for us to take students from a basic understanding and limited exposure to a different level of processing and producing information on an extensive scale. How does a blog enhance a lesson? Well, on the simplest level, it adds a measure of accountability. Every student has a voice and that voice is heard by more than just a teacher. It is a showcase for the student. The student's mind and thought process are out there for the world to see; it is a number of steps beyond a simple spelling test posted on a classroom wall. It is also a place for students, and others, to interact on a whole host of topics. Participation is not limited to a classroom anymore, and that is liberating in many ways.

After thinking about this topic for a while I came back to the idea of high stakes testing. When I really thought about the “high stakes” world of standardized testing versus the (low stakes?) world of interactive blogging, I found a conundrum. With high stakes standardized testing from the federal government, students hold virtually no responsibility for their actions, while the world of blogging puts their thoughts out on the web for the entire world to see and comment on. High stakes means something different in my book than some others' apparently, because I figure that potentially having 6.67 billion people looking at our students while they speak on a virtual stage just might fall into the high stakes category. I guess that value in learning is really a matter of perspective...and for me, blogging is worth the time.