Tech & Learning - June 2008 - (Page 36)

FEATURESTORY Facebook, where students may expand their voices around the world. A small number of students have produced totally inappropriate and even vicious content. Blocking blogs in school is a natural first response against the potential deep harm this medium can create. However, now that blogging has gone mainstream (e.g., in presidential politics, corporate communications, higher education), it is time to revisit the upside of preparing students to understand the ethics and social responsibility that comes with all of this global power. If we can all agree that students do not need our permission to have a blog when they leave the school house, then let’s focus on the teachable moment. Our students need us to provide the excellent role models and the thoughtful ethics this medium demands. Blogs are not going away. Indeed, essentially all of the major 2008 U.S. presidential candidates used blogs to connect with the next generation of voters. If we do not teach our students how this powerful media works, the worst case may not be student abuse. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the real danger is that a majority of our students will lack the critical-thinking skills necessary to separate the message from the medium. Students are currently participating in what is probably the most powerful opportunity the Internet can provide— the ability to communicate within a global forum, build knowledge content as a community, and publish writing to an authentic audience. Think about how motivating it would be as a middle school student to have feedback on your writing from the real-life author of a book you are reading in class. Not all bloggers are going to have the opportunity to meet with nationally acclaimed authors, but the ability to communicate with anyone around the world— experts in your community or peer-editors in Japan—is entirely possible. Blogging represents one of many tools that pioneering teachers are using to empower students to take more responsibility for managing their own work and adding value to the world. Thousands of teachers are using blogs as educational tools: they are relatively easy to create, you can create content in minutes, you can publish to a large audience or a targeted community, and you can invite almost anyone into a conversation. Even so, there are also some fierce critics who believe blogging has no true value in the classroom. Each has an important voice. Here are some of the common concerns I’ve heard from other teachers about blogging: Blogs give too much freedom for students to express themselves. Teachers will never be able to control comments. Students and parents will have too much access to other students’ published work. Students will feel too much pressure to improve as they see the work and comments of others. SHIFTS OF CONTROL Unlike word processing, using a smart board, or having students present a PowerPoint presentation to classmates behind closed doors, blogging shifts the concept of the control of information. Perceptions of time, space, and relationships are expanded. The audience moves from teacher and class to the world. Teachers are no longer the sole or even the primary arbitrator of student work. It is even possible that teachers do not have to work as hard to motivate traditionally failing students or to set much higher expectations for excelling students. Parents can now have access to the writing of an entire class, compared to only what their own child brings home written in their hand. Enter “pre cal” into Google and in one of the top spots you will find http://pc40s.blogspot.com/. This is the class blog of Winnipeg math teacher and department head, Darren Kuropatwa. Darren is another pioneer who has engaged his students in producing a student guide to precalculus and calculus. Each day a different student is the official scribe of the class and is responsible for producing notes for publication of that day’s discussion. Students are challenged to produce accurate notes with accompanying illustrations and examples by their classmates. At the end of this year, his classes will have produced a Student’s Guide to Understanding Calculus. Before blogging we would expect hardworking students to be able to read the calculus textbook. Darren expects his students to write the “book”—i.e., blog. Darren’s students are published around the world in real time. In fact, a recent check using the link: command in AltaVista shows hundreds of Web sites linked to the class site, including conferences and commentaries by leading educationalists and other math teachers. (Go to AltaVista and type: link:http://pc40s.blogspot.com to generate today’s list.) Darren knows the power of students who understand that their work is being referenced by organizations around the world. His students are contributors to the world’s “knowledge commons.” Not only does he teach calculus, he teaches students that one of the responsibilities of global 36 | TECH & LEARNING http://pc40s.blogspot.com/

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Technology & Learning - June 2008 Contents Editor's Desk News & Trends They Said It: What Tech&Learning Insiders Are Writing Online Junket Justifiers Back Office Business Students of the World Unite! Get Small for Fall Summer Reading for School Leaders They Can Hear You Now What's New - NECC Highlights and More Leader of the Year Profile

Technology & Learning - June 2008

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