I really appreciated the way Will Richardson explains how teachers should introduce blogging into the classroom one step at a time. One of my concerns about using blogging in my classroom is that the quality of information students have access to will be both un-useful, and inappropriate for the topic and age group.
The way Richardson suggests that we begin by using a teacher only blog to post assignments and relevant web sites for student use. I love this idea for parental involvement also because, parents who want detailed information about their child's assignments will have it at their finger tips.
Then Richardson suggests we should have student post a certain amount comments on the teacher blog, and from there transition into students possibly posting to their own blogs. He also stressed the importance of communicating expectations to students and parents for blogging. Parents should also understand why blogging enhances what their children are learning and how it will make them better readers/writers, and how blogging will build confidence and social responsibility in their students. Most important is perhaps the need for teachers to examine their practice of blog use and make sure it is meeting with the standards above and is accomplishing something productive in the classroom.
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I agree that parents should understand that blogging can enhance their child's education. In other words, I agree that teachers should do their best to keep parents involved. However, I'm sure that is not always an easy task.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I agree that teachers should be sure that their use of technology aligns with a productive goal. It could be tempting to include technology only for the sake of including technology.
I like the idea of parental involvement, but I agree with Isaiah in that getting parents involved is not easy. This past year, I was in contact with maybe 3-4 parents out of all my classes. These parents wanted to know how their students were performing and what they could do to help. The rest of the parents either didn't care or didn't have time to be involved- hopefully the latter is the reason of the majority, but I do know that some parents unfortunately do not care about their child's academics.
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