In her blog post, Katie LaRue hit upon the idea of the asynchronous nature of blogs. I wanted to expand on this topic because this is a key positive for using blogs in the classroom.
When you use a blog in a class, it is not necessary for anyone to be doing anything at the same time. This means that blogs are asynchronous. This aspect of blogs (and other forms of online collaboration) is very helpful for differentiation in classrooms. We know intuitively as teachers that our students do not all think at the same pace, and there are some excellent comments and questions that our students might be able to add to the discussion that never get addressed because the class has "moved on". The blogging platform allows all of our students to add to classroom discussions when they otherwise couldn't.
Hey JP, I just wanted you to know that my blog address changed... http://emanganedtc.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeletesorry!
ELizabeth
Using blogs to continue discussions is great. Like you and Katie both mentioned, students learn at different paces. Also learning and asking questions should not stop once the content has been taught. Even as an adult, I have questions about a concept weeks after I was introduced to it. A blog is a great place to refresh understanding and continue the learning. With elementary students especially, they have a more difficult time retaining information that was taught in previous weeks. If they do not "master" the concept when it was first taught, they will have a difficult time remembering and applying the concept. A blog can help keep the discussion about a topic open for longer than it was taught in the hopes that a deeper understanding could be met.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you mentioned the differentiation aspect of blogs. I hadn't thought about all of the discussion that I have had in my classrooms. Typically I will ask a question, give some wait time, wait until I see a majority of hands up and call on someone. Then I can call on another person and we may discuss something else. Often times that student who's mind works a little slower and can't come up with a response as quickly as the others gets forgotten about and never gets a chance to respond. With blogs, that student can think at their own pace and create a response and really feel like they are part of the class.
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