Blogs

This is the first time I have used a blog. I found the set-up using Blogger.com to be extremely user friendly and believe this tool can be suitably applied to secondary education.

In response to another peer’s blog, I suggested ways that this format may be applied to early childhood. Instead of using the blog to record text, which may be beyond the capabilities of these learners, it could present numerous pictorials, video links and games tied to the Childs interests. It may also be linked to other school friend’s blogs, family and teacher. This is a concept that I wish to explore with my own four year old.

I found that it is necessary to understand a little more about the functionality of Blogger; specifically, how to adjust settings to restrict access, provide certain information or allow functionality to a specific "community of practice" (Wenger, 2006).  If I am to introduce blogging into an education environment, I must ensure, the security of my learners from potential threats represented as inappropriate contact, audio and visual content. This however does not mean I must restrict access by building a "walled garden approach" (Wikipedia, 2010). To find out more how to protect children and report online predators or inappropriate materials the Australian Government has established the Cybersmart website providing information for children, parents and schools (Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2010).

It is important to note that Blogger usually allows access by students to any blog online through the "next blog" control located on the main toolbar. This function may be disabled by having your IT Administrator restrict access to a specified URL (Google, 2010). This ensures students will not accidentally be exposed to any inappropriate material within other blogs. Another security measure, called moderation, includes adjusting the settings, within each blog, to have all blog comments are forwarded to the teachers email before they are published. This can be further enhanced by not allowing anonymous comments posted to the blog and having students use screen names when doing their posting to protect their identity within the public domain.



Scot Aldred begin (2010, March 13) in his March E-Learning blogs, supports the view to allow as much free access to the internet as possible for students, in much the same way that the a student would have outside of a school. Aldred (2010, March 13) supports the students needs to have this level of access so they can access and apply a wide range of beneficial web 2.0 technologies within an authentic environment. As a result of my embedded professional learning in various schools; including, firsthand experience while attempting to access restricted online translators used to communicate with Brazilian students in their first language of Portuguese; I also believe, the process of applying unnecessary blanket restrictions within the classroom environment does little to protect the learner from life’s experiences involving inappropriate contact or material; however, contributes more to restricting my learner from achieving their full potential and awareness. An interesting fact to note; when I asked the school's IT administrator why these Flash-based tools had been blocked, the response was it had been enforced because most children were found to be playing games using this technology instead of doing school work. I consider this to be a classroom management issue rather than and IT concern restricting access for those teachers who have the capacity to engage their students and ensure a productive learning environment exists. I refer to Aldred's (2010, March 13) blog comments in support of this view, "draconian policies of blocking almost all Websites and virtually all the available Web 2.0 tools, means that student learning experiences are much poorer than those they can experience outside of school."


Despite the above restrictions, I envisage using blogs within education in two ways. First, as an aid to improve my teacher practices. It may be used to communicate declarative knowledge to students in a format that is flexible, uses a variety of ways to explain specific knowledge; and, is available at any time of the day or week for the student or other stakeholders to access. Second, I will use blogs as an aid to enhance student learning. This would involve students using a blog to record their learning of a subject and related topics throughout their studies; including, posting comments to other peer blogs; encouraging them to gain another perspective of the content; and, also receive feedback on their own summaries. This could also be accessible to other stakeholders for review; such as, parents/carers or teachers. These uses of a blog will form a learning journal for students which they may use to complete any assignments or an assessment may even involve the blog itself as an learning outcome.


A more advanced application of a blog may include students having to provide solutions to real world issues. They achieve this by sharing their blog collaboratively outside of their present school community; either, within an extended community of practice or within an open public forum. Engagement Theory suggests, “students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks”, further explaining that this authentic learning paradigm leads to an increase in student motivation and satisfaction and subsequent engagement of these learners; furthermore, this theory proposes that there are three elements required to achieve learner engagement involving ICT’s and these include: group collaboration, project based assignments and a non-academic focus (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999).



References

Aldred, S. (2010, March 13). School internet policies: Protecting students or the organisation??. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, http://e-learning-engagement.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Australian Communications and Media Authority (2010). Cybersmart. [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/

Google (2010). Blogger help: How can I block access to next blog on my network?. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=48787

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Retrieve from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

Wikepedia (2010). Walled garden: Technology. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_garden_(media)