As I look over the blog posts of the Russell Street School and look at the activities of the different classrooms, it seems that the purpose of their blogging seems to be substantively different than the way that we are using our blogging. To a certain degree, this seems incredibly obvious since we are in a graduate program and they are elementary students. However, I mean there seems to be a more fundamental difference.
In our class, the blog is a primary driver of learning. We learn by creating a post and discussing that post with peers. The learning takes place via the blogging.
In their classes, it seems that the blog serves the purpose of advertising learning that has taken place in another context and allowing people to give encouragement. I looked through several classes of varying ages, and didn't see anything that seemed to approach a critical discussion, even one fitting for the age group. Instead I saw things like, "Very interesting facts girls!," and "Good reading people I know you are one of those."
This difference between being the primary driver of learning and being a report of learning made for encouragement was interesting to me. As I teach adults, I am more used to thinking about blogging as a primary source of discussion, but the way Russell Street School uses it makes a lot of sense for the age group and I can see a lot of utility in it. I would be interested to know if schools for older children in this area continue the students active involvement using web tools in learning and, if so, how they apply it.
Garin,
ReplyDeleteI think you made a good point. Their blogs served more as a way to display student work and let parents know of what is happening in the classroom. Kind of like an open classroom even if you are not able to be there during school hours to visit the kids. However, I think that there is space for reflection in their blogs and I hope to see them use it more as a tool and not as driver for their learning. Good post!
A good point! There is definitely a space for students to reflect more, and just a little development could bring that use more to the forefront. However, if they were to be sharing more, I wonder if a pseudonym wouldn't be in order to help protect the child. I worry about children oversharing for some reason more than I do about older students. Maybe that's the fuddy-duddy in me, though.
DeleteI agree here in principle. The blogs being used are user friendly and the application counterpart make them easy to control and implement. My daughter's class uses Seesaw mainly to communicate activities undergone in class, rather than more developed critique and responses that traditional blogs adults use. One great thing about Seesaw is the seamless integration other forms of media. In my personal experience with my 8-year-old son, he's posted Adobe Videos to his seesaw, as well as pictures for his portfolio. In the writing arena, not much at all has ever been submitted. He did however dictate his writing via the app in audio format which is great. In short, these blogging apps are great for learners to share and learn the process of portfolio building and their importance over time as it relates to social and academic growth.
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