Motivation
increasingly, educators are having a difficult time integrating technology into their curriculum. As compliance with educational standards becomes more challenging, there is less time for educators to master new technologies and to create separate technology-centered educational experiences for students. So, the challenge becomes finding a way to incorporate technology into existing classroom activities and educational goals.
Journaling has long been a foundation of the language-arts classroom. Rather than the traditional, highly structured, reports, essays, or stories that we all remember from our school days, journaling allows students to write about topics that are relevant to their lives. It may also give them a means to develop their own context for recent classroom lessons. It is the hope that by giving students the opportunity to write on their own terms, they will become more comfortable with the practice of writing. Then, they will be able to respond more effectively to lessons that reflect the mechanics of writing.
One of the most difficult parts of technology education is keeping information relevant. Teaching students how to use a particular software application may amount to memorizing steps or processes, but does this translate to confidence with computer software in general? Will students be able to adapt to new computing platforms and applications that they may encounter in their future educational or professional careers? Certainly, the difficulties that many schools have in maintaining up-to-date technological resources (or providing access to those resources) does not make matters any easier.
Still, even with the difficulties of technology integration in the classroom, technology holds a certain mystique with students. Youth raised on PlayStation and the Internet may respond more enthusiastically to technology in the classroom than to other more traditional teaching mediums.
Blogging
One of the most exciting technologies that has gained prominence on the Internet is the emergence of the “blog”. A blog is a sort of online journal that uses web-based content to allow an average person to share ideas and information with others on the Internet. Frequently these blogs reference and respond to other web content and include a dialogue about the ideas contained in the journal posts. The 2004 election season saw both journalists, politicians, and activists using blogs to share information about various races and issues.
Blogs are typically built on top of web-based technologies. While the server-side installation and maintenance of a blog can involve a number of different technologies, the blog author adds and updates the blog content using only web browser software such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Because the software application application used for blogging is the familiar web browser, even technology users with limited levels of technological proficiency can participate in the application of blogging technology.
Blogging in the classroom
While there are many possible applications of blogging technologies in the classroom, many of which are already being explored by many educators, this proposal focuses on using a blog in the student’s journaling exercises. The advantages of this application are numerous. First, since blogs were initially conceived as journals, their use as a replacement for paper and pencil journal writing is a natural one. Instead of technology instruction coming at the expense of other classroom activities, students get to use and become more confident with technology while doing their usual classwork. Second, since the technology involved with blogging is relatively simple, both educators and students need little extra knowledge to begin using the technology. The added benefit of this is that students can “play” with the technology and develop confidence and their own methods for learning technology without unneeded interaction with teachers. Furthermore, because more and more software applications are moving to web interfaces, using web-based software on a frequent basis will prepare the student for using such software in other educational pursuits or the workplace. Also, the novelty of using technology may, for many students, foster some much needed enthusiasm for writing activities. Finally, the technology makes more effective use of both student and instructor time and can be used to make for more meaningful writing experiences. The teacher can view all his students’ posts through a single interface rather than being bound to a heavy stack of paper. She can view and respond to her students writing from home, from the computer lab, from a wireless-enable coffee shop – anywhere with an Internet connection. The teacher no longer has to contend with illegible handwriting and can even encourage students to correct their own spelling mistakes using spell-checking features of the software. Also, the time-honored blaming of canines for lost assignments has difficulty translating to the digital realm. The commenting features of many blogging software applications also allows for teachers to easily communicate with their students about the writing and could also allow for peer review between students.
A sample implementation
To demonstrate an implementation that could be used for blog journaling in the classroom, I installed the WordPress blogging package on my server. I chose the WordPress package because it is an Open Source project. Not only does this mean that there is no cost for the software or for the underlying technology, but it also means that the source code for the project is available for modification. This would allow educators to modify the software to best meet the needs of their students. In fact, I wrote a plugin to restrict access to certain content for the students and to simplify the posting interface.
The sample classroom blog can be accessed at http://terrorware.com/wordpress/.
When you visit the classroom blog without being a user, or as a student user, you will notice that the title and body of the sample posts are replaced with the text ” You do not have permission to view this information”. This is to allow students to keep their writing private from other students. However, this behavior can be modified if desired.
Logging in
To begin playing around with the classroom blog, one should log in by clicking the login link to the right of the page.
One can log in with the following credentials depending on whether one wants to see the blog as would the student or the teacher:
Role: Student
Username: student
Password: student
Role: Teacher
Username: teacher
Password: teacher
Student use
Once logged in as the student user, one is taken to the Write page which is used to make a new journal entry. One can enter a title for the journal entry and type the body of the entry in the appropriate text boxes. When one is finished writing, one can commit the journal entry by clicking the Publish button.
If one wishes to see a list of previous entries, one can click on the Edit link at the top of the page. One can then click the Edit or Delete links next to the journal entry listings to modify or remove those entries.
The basic student use of the classroom blog is limited to creating new entries and viewing, modifying, and deleting past entries. Of course, the functionality can be expanded to allow for commenting, team editing, and other more advanced behaviors if desired.
Students can (and should) log out of the classroom blog by clicking the Logout link at the top of the page when finished.
Teacher use
When one is logged in as the teacher, one should notice that the front page (accessed through the View site link at the top of the page) now shows a summary of recent journal entries. This could be used by teachers to quickly see their students’ work. The teacher can then return to the administrative pages by clicking on the login link again.
Clicking on the Edit link at the top of the page will display a list of all the students’ entries. These entries can be sorted based on date or searched. Clicking on each entry’s title will allow the teacher to see the full text of the entry. As with the student interface, entries can be deleted or edited from this menu.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this proposal has motivated the advantages of using blogging technology in the language arts classroom as part of journaling exercises. Furthermore, the example implementation should give the reader an idea of how the technology works and the ease with which it can be integrated into the classroom. Even with the mounting challenges facing educators, technology can still be used in the classroom in simple yet exciting ways!