Bringing Blogs into the Classroom

After reading Carrie Windam’s article “Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog”, I realized the difficulties of making a connection between our digital classroom and my classroom at school. In her article, Tom Nelson, a graduate student instructor, mentions the importance of drawing a link between the blog and class. “The most important thing, he says, is to create a link between the class and the blog. He makes a point to bring up the blog during face-to-face time and to reference specific postings”. I have found a few challenges in doing so.
1. Students do not follow the comments on the blog. They simply respond in isolation to their peers comments.
2. Students do not remember what others have blogged.
3. I do not have the ability to show the blog in class due to internet access restrictions in the classroom.

I find it a challenge to connect our classroom with our blog; yet, I have noticed that despite the ideal of having awesome discussion that began on the blog filter into the classroom there have been some interesting improvements in the class.

1. Students are coming to class with something to contribute. I have yet to hear a student say “I don’t know” as a response to a question.
2. Students have become very conscientious of their writing in class.

This last observation may be a result of students reading other students writing more frequently on the blog rather than the limited amount of time spent reading other students writing in class. I have set little parameters around the formality of the writing on the blog, but students have become very conscious of their writing in class, often asking multiple questions around development of ideas and ensuring their responses or assignments are in accordance with the task. In the abstract to Carrie Windham’s work it is noted: “Faculty and students are recognizing blogging’s learning potential, including the chance to practice writing, reflecting on other’s thinking, and respond to critical analyses of one’s own work” (2007). I have seen the improvement in their blog comments. Something I will ask them is if their comments are coloured by the fact that they do not know who the authors of the other comments are. (Originally, I was going to compile a list for them of blogger ID’s. However, I refrained from doing so I could allow them to writing without the pressure of peer judging.)