Journal # 3

Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging.
By Julie Sturgeon

In the article Julie talks about the five things teachers should not do when it comes to blogging in the classroom. The first thing to avoid is just diving in, according to the author you have to set up guidelines with the students and inform their parents as to what is going on in the classroom. The next blogging don’t is not to confuse it with social networking, the idea being that a true educational blog is more about students helping each other with schoolwork and getting together academically. The third blogging don’t is to not leap at the blogging freebies like Blogger.com or Typepad.com. The problem is these free sites don’t give the teacher enough control over the students, and they are full of advertisements and access to all sorts of harmful blogging for the students. The next don’t in regards to blogging is not to force a sequential style. The better choice is to structure entries by topic rather than putting them by chronological order, this way you can have a maximum impact. The fifth and final blogging don’t is not to leave the blogging to the students. This is important because teachers can get to know their students in other ways and be a part of the community.

Questions:

1. What is the most important thing to remember when it comes to setting up an educational blog in the classroom?
In my opinion the most important thing about setting up an educational blog for my students would be that I take the time to actively and frequently participate in it. I understand that there are other things I need to be aware of, however for me the key is that I can connect and interact with my students through the blog. If I am constantly interacting and participating in the community then to me the blog will be a much more effective tool to help me teach the class.

2. What is the one thing I would be most concerned with when using a classroom blog to teach students?
The area I would be most concerned about when using a blog for the class is that the students would use it in inappropriate ways and that it would be used primarily for socializing instead of education. However, I think I could deter this problem by hopefully having a good system of guidelines to lay down exactly what to use the blog for and what not to do.