Tech Play 1.0 Blogs
The purpose of a blog is to have a log, or written record, of your thoughts, questions, and actions kept for you on the web so that you have easy access to it. Having your written log available to you on the web also affords you the opportunity to share it easily with others. It is these affordances that initially make blogs useful in a classroom. I had the chance to play with a few blog platforms to evaluate their features and affordances for learning. The following are the platforms that I had a chance to evaluate.
Wordpress:
In order to use Wordpress you must have a web host and then you must download their software. Since I didn't have a host and I knew there were other options out there that didn't require it I moved on without getting to play with this option really at all. I tried to download their software just to see what it was like, but it wouldn't let me without a host. The site does send you to a page with suggestions for web hosts, but I wasn't willing to sign up and pay to play. In conclusion, I can see how this site might be appropriate for web design students who know about web hosts and such. Since I am an elementary Media Specialist, this is a little out of my wheel house.
Weebly:
Weebly is a great site for publishing your own website without buying a domain name, employing a host and designing it from scratch. You can use any number of templates provided and customizing the layout and graphics is fairly simple. Within the site design you can add any number of pages and apps. It is as easy as clicking on a few buttons to start a blog on Weebly. Weebly has more potential for pedagogical and content overlap since it is not limited to just the blog format. You can have different pages for a myriad of media.
Weebly would work wonderfully for an assignment anywhere from a book report to a science project. Instead of a poster board students could put their findings on different pages and be able to share it with each student in the class. They could make the project more interactive. The blog portion could give the students a place to express their opinion about the subject and the visitors to the page could add comments or ask questions.
Blogger:
Blogger is probably the simplest blog site to work with and is a great place to start. It is connected to your google id. I have previously set up personal blogs using blogger and love the fact that I can go back to them without trying to figure out different log ins every time. This makes my life simpler and I love that. On the other hand the design choices and templates provided by blogger are fairly simple. As an adult who has a little bit of design experience I find it limiting, but it would be a great place for younger students or those without much tech experience to start off. Blogger is a great way for students to practice free writing or daily journaling. It allows the teacher a place to respond in the comments. Blogger would be an ideal format for responses to literature or to create their own writing portfolio.
Overall I can see great potential in using blogs to support instruction in the classroom. There are a few obstacles that might hinder wide range adoption across education. The first obstacle is availability. I know it would not have been feasible in my classrooms because of a lack of computers available for student use. It would also take up valuable instructional time to teach the students how to find the web page, how to sign up, and how to build the blog. I personally think that those are valuable skills that students need to know, but it is not part of the curriculum and would not be reflected well in a teacher's observation.
Wordpress:
In order to use Wordpress you must have a web host and then you must download their software. Since I didn't have a host and I knew there were other options out there that didn't require it I moved on without getting to play with this option really at all. I tried to download their software just to see what it was like, but it wouldn't let me without a host. The site does send you to a page with suggestions for web hosts, but I wasn't willing to sign up and pay to play. In conclusion, I can see how this site might be appropriate for web design students who know about web hosts and such. Since I am an elementary Media Specialist, this is a little out of my wheel house.
Weebly:
Weebly is a great site for publishing your own website without buying a domain name, employing a host and designing it from scratch. You can use any number of templates provided and customizing the layout and graphics is fairly simple. Within the site design you can add any number of pages and apps. It is as easy as clicking on a few buttons to start a blog on Weebly. Weebly has more potential for pedagogical and content overlap since it is not limited to just the blog format. You can have different pages for a myriad of media.
Weebly would work wonderfully for an assignment anywhere from a book report to a science project. Instead of a poster board students could put their findings on different pages and be able to share it with each student in the class. They could make the project more interactive. The blog portion could give the students a place to express their opinion about the subject and the visitors to the page could add comments or ask questions.
Blogger:
Blogger is probably the simplest blog site to work with and is a great place to start. It is connected to your google id. I have previously set up personal blogs using blogger and love the fact that I can go back to them without trying to figure out different log ins every time. This makes my life simpler and I love that. On the other hand the design choices and templates provided by blogger are fairly simple. As an adult who has a little bit of design experience I find it limiting, but it would be a great place for younger students or those without much tech experience to start off. Blogger is a great way for students to practice free writing or daily journaling. It allows the teacher a place to respond in the comments. Blogger would be an ideal format for responses to literature or to create their own writing portfolio.
Overall I can see great potential in using blogs to support instruction in the classroom. There are a few obstacles that might hinder wide range adoption across education. The first obstacle is availability. I know it would not have been feasible in my classrooms because of a lack of computers available for student use. It would also take up valuable instructional time to teach the students how to find the web page, how to sign up, and how to build the blog. I personally think that those are valuable skills that students need to know, but it is not part of the curriculum and would not be reflected well in a teacher's observation.
Comments
Post a Comment