Journal 9: "Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students"

Reynard, Ruth. "Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students." 6 Jan 2009 http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23434.

With the growing popularity of blogs, it is no surprise that teachers are starting to use them along with other projects in class. With more teachers using blogs for students to post assignments there is more room for error in communicating what the teacher expects from the student. One of the interesting mistakes that Reynard points out is that the teacher is unclear in communicating the learning outcomes to the student. As a student myself, I like to know how a certain assignment is going to improve my education or what I am going to learn that it useful from the assignment. The same is true for the blogs. At first I did not understand the importance of them to my future career in education but now I have a better understanding of how I will be able to provide my potential jobs with a website created and managed by me displaying all my work. Other students might have the same concerns of how is this going to help me. I think it is important to provide the students with what they will learn in using blogs. Also blogs can help students create their own ideas and be more creative and push them toward increasing their analytical skills.

Blogs are also very useful for personal reflection or creating new ideas that you want to remember. The thing to remember about blogs that Reynard points out is that they are for personal use and not intended to be discussion boards. If information exchange is desired then a more appropriate site would be to create a wiki (which is intended for information exchange and discussions). This would fall under he common mistake of misuse of the environment.

Following up on both of these common mistakes, which I probably been the most likely to make until being informed more about blogs. Another mistake common is not evaluating students work and giving them feedback on it. It helps keep the student accountable to posting their work when they know it is going to be checked on by the teacher and evaluated and also if other people are going to see it then you want it to be the best work possible. A grading rubrics is a suggestion made and is a good one with the expectations in each area. Also a timeline of when blogs are due is good. Making sure ALL students have enough time to complete the assignments, make sure the timeline is realistic.

In my career as a teacher this article was helpful in noticing what mistakes alot of teachers make when trying ti incorporate technology into the classroom. Making sure that the student is comfortable with using the blog and that they understand what are expected learning outcomes from the blog and my expectations will be helpful in directing students towards a higher level of learning while utilizing tools such as blogs.