Blogging: The New Form of Pencil and Paper? Technology has changed the way students view school.

Students find traditional paper and pencil lessons boring because of them growing up in an age where technology is everywhere. Classroom teachers have to find new ways to teach the same basic curriculum to these students to keep them engaged. Reading a science lesson and answering questions at the end of a chapter is no longer something that students find challenging. Wikis, blogs, and other technological tools have the ability to change education (Glassman, Kang, 2011). According to Zawilinski (2009) blogs are one of the most elementary and easiest to use technologies available for teachers to begin implementing technology into their classrooms. Blogs are good tools to use also because they can be used in all academic subject areas (Foust, 2007). Students get excited when they are allowed to get on computers in school. Teachers know that learning takes place when students use hands-on practices and get to communicate with each other (Ellison, Wu, 2008). Ramaswami (2008) makes a very good point that blogging can improve students writing skills because they have the ability to view and comment on the work of their peers. Therefore, if a student is a lower-level student, a more advanced student would be able to post comments to let the writer know they made errors in punctuation, spelling, or grammar. With all classmates commenting on each others blogs, their audience is no longer just the teacher reading, commenting, and correcting their work according to Zawilinski (2009). Blogs can also provide a sort of pen pal relationship with students in other counties, states or countries because of their availability on the Internet. This interaction with students from other schools can help students with their knowledge as well as being excited about learning (Youse, Kenniburg, McCormack, 2005). Another valid point made by Colombo and Columbo (2007) is that blogs can increase effective instructional time. They also pointed out that blogs can help teachers differentiate instruction by having different parts on a blog. Students can respond to questions posted by the teacher, teachers can upload podcasts of the lesson for the auditory learner and ESOL learners, students can post questions to ask for clarification by classmates or by the teacher, and students can download lessons to their IPods to review for exams. Blogs are always available to students, parents, and tutors because they are on the Internet, and that helps students get the support they need when they leave school (Columbo, Columbo, 2007). After investigating a couple of blogs created by elementary school teachers, it is evident that students find blogging exciting and looking at the work created by the students, it appears they put more thought into it. Seeing the various sections on Mrs. Kreuls blog (http://mskreul.edublogs.org) makes me want to create a blog to begin using this next school year. I can see many uses of blogging in elementary classrooms. First of all, it will be an excellent writing tool. So many times students complain about writing because they do not like to write. Also, it will be better for many students who do not have neat handwriting. Secondly, I like the fact that I can put up lessons, study guides, homework assignments, and students and

parents can always have access to them, especially if they are absent. In looking at Mrs. Kreuls blog and http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=59644, a fifth grade blog, I can definitely see the need for creating one for my fourth grade classroom. I like the fact that students will have the opportunity to comment on their classmates work and the fact that we can create podcasts to upload like I saw in Mrs. Kreuls blog. Blogging can definitely help the teacher to check for student understanding better. There are some students who are shy and will not speak up in class. It is so easy to forget about those students until papers are graded and then you realize they did not understand something. Being able to communicate with students their age from places other than Statesboro, Georgia, will also excite students. I can envision lots of other learning taking place. For example, a student living in New York City would be able to tell students in my classroom about the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and other points of interest that we only read about in textbooks or online. This will open up lots of discussion and exploration. I also see how differentiation can occur more easily by using blogs by having various assignments as well as posts in a couple of mediums (podcasts, written text) for students preferences. Writing quality will hopefully improve as students critique their classmates work. Students seem to listen to peers constructive criticism more than their teachers. The major barrier I see to implementing blogging in classrooms is support from administration because of their lack of knowledge with them. Classroom teachers will have to coordinate with the system technology department to make sure I choose the settings so as not to violate school policies on private information getting into hands of the wrong people. Once this is cleared, I think administrators will be more willing to have more teachers implement blogging. Blogging has been around for several years now, but many teachers are reluctant to create and use them because they have not been taught how to create them or how they can be used in the classroom. There needs to be more time spent on educating teachers on how to effectively use tools such as blogs. Another barrier is that some students do not have internet capability at home and some do not have IPods to download information to take home with them. Those students would only have access to the blog at school and would not be able to complete posts at home. As Ramaswami (2008) quotes in The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too), blogging lets writers take more ownership of their writing and it can become a reallife opportunity for writing development. Blogging promotes students to write, to become more critical thinkers, and to write for an audience (Ellison and Wu, 2008) because they know not only their teacher will be reading what they write. Blogging is an excellent way to increase effective instructional time as stated by Columbo and Columbo (2007). Blogs have been used on a small scale so far, but with more and more teachers using them and explaining to their colleagues how they can be used, I feel blogging (or some type of online interactive communication) will catch on more and more in the next few years.

Citations Columbo, M. W., and Columbo, P. D. (2007). Blogging to Improve Instruction in Differentiated Science Classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(1), 60-63. Retrieved from EBSCO host. Ellison, N. B., & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-99-122. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205847595?accountid=10661 Foust, R. Y. (2007). Techno-Klutz Meets the Blog. Library Media Connection, 25(4), 56-57. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Glassman, M., & Kang, M. J. (2011). The logic of wikis: The possibilities of the web 2.0 classroom. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 6(1), 93-93-112. doi:10.1007/s11412-011-9107-y Ramaswami, Rama. (2008). The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too). The Journal, 1-8. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2008/11/01/The-Prose-of-Blogging Youse, C., Kenniburg, C., & McCormack, B. (2005). Student Voices. Knowledge Quest, 33(4), 2122. Retrieved from EBSCO host. Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking. Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661. Retrieved from EBSCO host.