There is a lot of websites that you can create a blog on, for free.
For example from:
To make it work you need a computer and access to Internet. Most of the children have a computer and access to Internet in their homes today. If that is not the case the pupils have access to it in school.
How the blog can be used by the teacher and the pupils
The teacher can use the blog for educational purposes as well as for communication to the children and parents. As a teacher you can publish texts, pictures, movies and songs for the pupils to work with. The pupils can publish assignments and tasks they have done and you can give feedback. However, it is important to give the children time to do the assignments and tasks in school if some of the pupils do not have a computer with Internet access at home.
The children can also communicate with other pupils in the class on the blog about the assignment and tasks, they can read and comment each other’s texts and contributions. This is an easy way of starting communication and discussions between the pupils as well as between the pupils and the teacher. This blog is a way to develop the children’s skills in reading and writing in the English language.
Other considerations
It is important to give the pupils information on paper and in school even if you publish it on the blog. The same applies when it comes to present and explain the assignments and tasks in school. When the blog is established and the children have been introduced to the blog all information and the assignments and tasks can be published on the blog. As I wrote before the blog can be a way for the parent to communicate with the teacher. Some parents are sitting a lot of time by the computer.
A blog gives many opportunities and I like your example. As you write a blog can be used both for educational purposes and for communication. I like the ideas of communication; teacher-parents, teacher-pupils and pupils-pupils. I especially like the communication between teacher and parents. The parents often want to know what the children are doing in school but the teacher don’t have time to talk with all the parents every day.. A blog can be a good solution for this problem, the teacher (and pupils) can write about what they are doing in school right now.
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea that the pupils will publish assignments and tasks for feedback, both from the teacher and other pupils. To read and comment someone else’s text is good and it is a good way for feedback. The children also have to think about how to give feedback in a good way!
A blog is a good way to tell the children what to do; there you can publish tasks and other things for the pupils to do. I think this is a very good way to give instructions because a paper has a tendency to disappear!
So, you can work with a blog in many ways and it is a good ICT resource.
Hi Madelen!
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of having a blog with a class. It is an easy way for teachers to communicate with pupils and parents. The blog is a way to produce homeworks, pupils work and other “good to know” stuff. Sometimes it is hard for parents to come and visit in school, but here the blog will give them plenty of information what the pupils are doing daily. I think it is important that teachers give the blog a chance, and not just do it for some weeks. If a teacher daily can post something, it´s grate. When a pupil is on vacation, the blog is an excellent way to publish photos and text about the vacation. I really consider using a blog in the future of my own class!
I absolutely think that a blog is a suitable way for teachers to publish educative materials to the pupils, and information to the parents, if making sure that the material is free to use and, as you say, also provided on paper for those who wish so. However, important information should always be sent to the parents personally, because they will not automatically notice when new information is written in the blog (even if much time is spent by the computor).
ReplyDeleteI also think that many children find it more fun to sometimes use the computor for writing, instead of pen and paper. Perhaps, knowing that their work is to be published even would make them put an extra effort on the task. However, putting young childrens assessments in a blog could also create fearness of expressing themselves, and I wonder; what if the assessment is not very well? Should it be shared anyway? How might that affect the pupil?
The fact that blogs are a kind of open resources also limits the parents possibility to communicate with the teacher. Only common things are appropriate for a blog. Personal communication must still be supported by e-mail, chat or "non-ICT communication". However, if limiting the blog for a specific group, a lot of common things could be shared that way. I have not checked all of the links above, but in blogg.se, though, I cannot find a feature like this. The only way to limit access to the blog seems to be by a password. I cannot either find a way to assign several peoples to write in one specific blog (like we are doing here). If no such feature is available, every child would need an own blog for the teacher and classmates to visit, and the only way for parents to communicate with the teacher is to respond on the teachers blog.
These are some things that I think has to be concidered, and it would be great to know more about how the different blog providers (presented above) handle users and security, in order to decide if and how to use blogs in school, and which blog provider to choose.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback :)
My feedback on the comments:
I agree with “important information should always be sent to the parents personally”. As I wrote “It is important to give the pupils information on paper and in school” and by this I mean for example “veckobrev”.
“Putting young childrens assessments in a blog could also create fearness of expressing themselves”…I agree, but it can be solved by learning the pupils how to assess and check what they want to write before they publish their feedback the first times.
“The fact that blogs are a kind of open resources also limits the parents possibility to communicate with the teacher”…I am aware of this and of course I agree with you that only common things can be brought up in the blog, but this is only one way of communication. There can also be communication between the parents on the blog.
The blog would be shared by the teacher and the pupils. When it comes to the security, you can have a password and this makes the blog only available to the people who has the password.
Best regards Madelen