Blogging as an Interdisciplinary Approach in the Classroom?

When thinking about blogging, each class approaches the implementation of it differently.  For example, an English Language Arts class may utilize a blog for students to engage in reflections, journaling, literary discussions, etc.  A science class may utilize blogging for conducting labs and reporting findings.  A social studies class may utilize blogging for connecting past historical events with current ones or report and reflect upon current events.  A foreign language class may utilize blogging to write and communicate with peers and another classroom  utilizing the language of study.  Finally, a math class may utilize blogging to discuss and reflect upon how to solve problems, strategies, or the creation of math word problems for peers or another class.  While each of the above examples utilizes blogging in an effective way, the content areas remain separate from each other.  


Thinking back upon my years as a teacher, as a team of grade level teachers, the creation and implementation of interdisciplinary units was imperative for student learning.  By bringing all subjects together to work on a topic or unit of study, students are better able to make connections to learning and carry information over from one class to the next.  The Edutopia video does not focus on interdisciplinary blogging, but the importance of bringing all content areas together...shouldn't blogging be approached the same way in the classroom?  


Sounds exhausting, right?  I mean how in the world could blogging become part of an interdisciplinary unit?  Well, let's investigate.  Instead of each class having their own separate student blog, perhaps students could be provided with the space upon the beginning of the school year (that could be done through the technology coordinator).  Okay, so now that each student has his or her own blog that can be utilized in each class...now what?  


At the middle school I taught at, part of the social studies curriculum is studying Greek Gods and Goddesses.  How can interdisciplinary blogging occur?  What is the point of it?  Well, for one it would allow students to have one blog where all work is compiled from all classes and act as Richardson (2010) points out a file cabinet or e-portfolio.  In addition, it creates a common language amongst students and teachers as far as procedures for navigating to the blog, logging in, composing a post, or posting a response.  Furthermore T.H.E. Journal (2004, February) indicates, "Four benefits to student blogging: 1.  The use of blogs helps students become subject-matter experts.  2.  The use of blogs increases student interest and ownership in learning.  3.  The use of blogs gives students legitimate chances to participate.  4.  The use of blogs provides opportunities for diverse perspectives, both within and outside of the classroom."  With all of these elements combined, interdisciplinary blogging does not appear to be such a far-fetched idea.  Does it?     


What encompasses an interdisciplinary blogging? Here are a few examples that I came up with regarding a Greek Gods and Goddesses social studies unit:  

• Social Studies: Students can research and then information about their chosen God or Goddess.  Students can then respond to one or more of their peers about something interesting they learned from reading a different post.   
• Science: Students can research the symbols of their assigned God or Goddess and their composition.  For example, one of Aphrodite's symbols is the scallop shell.  Students can research how it forms, where it is located, etc. and post that information on the blog.  
• Math: Students can research ancient mathematicians and formulas they created.  The students can then use the formulas to create a problem.  Students can post this information on the blog and peers can try to solve them.  
• English Language Arts: Students can create a fictional story about their God or Goddess in modern day according to plot development and conflict.  Students will post their story on the blog and peers will be able to post their reactions to the stories.  
• Foreign Language: Students can create a poem about their God or Goddess utilizing their language of study.  The poem can be posted on the blog and students can translate each other's poem to English as well as comment about each other's God or Goddess.

Interdisciplinary blogging requires the work and collaboration of all grade level teachers.  It takes flexibility, understanding, and a willingness to experiment with something new.  Blogging allows students to write, create, collaborate, engage in on-going discussion where learning is applied.  So why not try interdisciplinary blogging, where an entire educational community participates in learning together?  "Students engaged in interdisciplinary learning often find the content more exciting and relevant, especially if teachers can connect the disciplines not only to each other but also to the past and present in a way that relates to students' lives," (Thirteen Ed Online, 2004).    

References

Content delivery in the 'blogosphere.'  (2004, February).  T.H.E. Journal.  Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2004/02/01/Content-Delivery-in-the-Blogosphere.aspx?p=1   


Edutopia.  (2010, August).  Common sense: An overview of integrated studies [Video file].  Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdIVCuBR_NY


Richardson, W.  (2010).  Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.).  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin


Thirteen Ed Online.  (2004).  Interdisciplinary learning in your classroom.  Retrieved from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/interdisciplinary/index.html

Blogging in My Classroom and Future Classroom

"...Writing stops; blogging continues.  Writing is inside; blogging is outside.  Writing is monologue; blogging is conversation.  Writing is thesis; blogging is synthesis...none of which minimizes the importance of writing.  But writing becomes an ongoing process, one that is not just done for the contrived purposes of the classroom," (Richardson, 2010, 31).  

Blogging in a sixth grade English Language Arts classroom is a process.  I have always found that students at this level need a bit more structure and boundaries than students in seventh and eighth grade, however, I begin this process at the beginning of the school year.  On the first day of school after reviewing classroom policies and procedures, students are given an opportunity to earn FISH (FISH Philosophy) for their individual fish bowls through an assignment that involves collaboration with a parent/guardian.  I find this assignment to be helpful as a first step process of students being able to navigate to the classroom blog and engage in the creation of their thoughts/opinions in addition to commenting on other peers' responses.  Furthermore, this also gives parents/guardians a chance to see what their students will be doing in the classroom with regards to technology integration. Perhaps a parent/guardian does not know what a blog is, or how to write a response.  This experience allows parents/guardians to become actively involved in their child's education right at the beginning of the year.  Finally, this assignment is not mandatory.  Students can choose to participate or not.  I approach the construction of their responses based upon a four-point scale which allows them to become familiar (in an indirect way) with how open-ended questions are assessed on state assessments.  Not a mandatory assignment, you think that students would not participate.  Surprisingly, they do!  

In addition to the FISH assignment, I utilize blogging in my classroom in various ways.  One way is to create opportunities for students to participate in on-going discussions that involve a piece of literature we are currently reading.  Students are required to make an initial post and then two responses to their peers.  Due to security and safety of students and school policy, the blog is private, however, we collaborate with the other sixth grade English Language Arts classroom.  Just like the FISH assignment, students have an opportunity to earn up to four points for their response based upon the "ACE" strategy (Explanation posted in EDTC 625 Conferences).  I find that students usually go above and beyond the minimum requirements of the assignment.  In addition, even my struggling writers, produce more.  Responses and posts are thoughtful and demonstrate understanding and critical thinking about the literature/literary elements.  

Another way I utilize blogging in my classroom is to provide other "FISH" assignments where they are not mandatory, but are opportunities for students to create and collaborate with each other on information.  I post various types of weekly questions that range in writing genres in order for students to experience multiple forms of writing.  The weekly questions are geared to student interest, but require them to critically think about their response prior to publishing on the blog.  In addition once the initial post is made, students are able to comment on others postings, which creates an on-going dialogue between them.  Since this is the students' space, I moderate comments, but do not participate in the dialogue, so that students can work through their thinking and the thinking of their peers, which creates deeper thinking and written responses.  

Since I am not currently teaching, for my classroom of the future, I would like to incorporate blogging more into my classroom by providing opportunities for students to write.  For example, I would like to provide each student with a blog at the beginning of a school year and allow them to utilize that space with their thoughts, reflections, and ideas about classroom content and its application to their lives.  While the thought of moderating about one hundred blogs appears daunting, it is doable (I already do it with a writing wiki.  Each student has their own space and I monitor the content there as well).  Sites like Thinkfinity and ReadWriteThink offer up some great lessons and ideas as to how to further incorporate blogging into the classroom.  When thinking about my previous post about how the pros and cons of blogging, I think to the future as to how to make blogging for my students not mandatory in order to allow them free creative space to well...create, however, the work they produce should be counted...but how in order to not make it "mandatory?"  Could allowing the blog to be a year long process and be evaluated at the end of the school year be a way?  Perhaps students should think about evaluation of blogging in my future classroom.  This would allow them to set the boundaries and expectations as a class.  Maybe that would take the "con" out of mandatory.  Either way, blogging in my future classroom will be a place for thoughts, reflections, ideas, etc.  The more students have the opportunity to write, the better authors they become, so having them write about topics that apply classroom learning and reflections in addition to commenting on peers' posts is a great way to foster learning experiences and critical thinking and writing development.  

"Blogging can tach critical reading and writing skills, and it can lead to greater information management skills.  It can help students become much more media and information literate by clarifying the choices they make about the content they write about, it can teach them about how networks function--both human and computer--and it can teach the essential skill of collaboration," (Richardson, 2010, 37).            

References

Charthouse Learning.  (2011).  Fish philosophy: Fish for schools.  Retrieved from http://www.charthouse.com/content.aspx?nodeid=16741

IRA and NCTE.  (2011).  ReadWriteThink.  Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/

Krishnan, R.  (n.d.).  Team Meeting [Clip Art], Retrieved Monday June 20, 2011 from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Richardson, W.  (2010).  Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.).  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin

Verizon Foundation.  (2010).  Thinkfinity.  Retrieved from http://thinkfinity.org/

The Pros and Cons of Blogging as a Collaborative Tool

"What needs to change about our curriculum when our students have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls? ...How do we need to rethink our ideas of literacy when we must prepare our students to become not only readers and writers, but editors and collaborators and publishers as well," (Richardson, 2010, 6)? 

When thinking about blogging as a collaboration tool in the classroom, it is important to consider both the pros and cons of the technology as a collaborative tool prior to implementing it into your classroom.  Blogging allows students to write for a larger audience, comment on others ideas, engage in classroom and broader discussions, collaborate together while creating information, etc.  The list of how a blog can be applied into your classroom is practically endless, however as Ramaswami (2008) points out, "What is the value added?"  

The pros of blogging as a collaborative tool are that it engages students in curriculum and learning experiences come alive.  In addition, blogging in the classroom has been shown to improve writing and critical thinking skills.  Richardson (2010) identifies that blogs can be utilized in the classroom in the following ways: Classroom Portals, Online Filing Cabinets, E-Portfolios, Collaborative Space, Knowledge Management, and School Websites.  Sounds fantastic, right?  Educators find the tool of blogging a great way to integrate technology into the classroom due to its ease and creation.  Furthermore, it's also a way to transform writing into a daily process of classroom activities.  The goal of collaboration through blogging is to provide a way for students to engage in an on-going discussion, reflect on what has been taught, write for a purpose, so the question remains, is there a "con" to blogging as a collaborative tool?  

Of course, the most obvious reason is security.  Working within the confines of a school system, presents challenges for educators.  For example, how will the teacher protect posts from acts of spam or vandalism from outside sources and other students?  In addition, will posts be monitored for content by the teacher? While security is an issue, teachers still find blogging a tool that aids students' abilities to write and collaborate with each other and other audiences.  

Aside from security, another "con" to consider is how blogging is implemented into the classroom.  "What happens when a free-flowing medium such as blogging interacts with the more restrictive domains of the educational system?  What happens when the necessary rules and boundaries of the system are imposed on students who are writing blogs, when grades are assigned in order to get students to write at all, and when posts are monitored to ensure that they don't say the wrong things," (Downes, 2002, 22-3)?  So is a "con" of blogging that students are forced to rather than it seamlessly be integrated into curriculum so that it is an opportunity rather than a requirement?  It's interesting to think that a "con" could be that blogging in education is becoming required writing.  If blogging is a way for students to collaborate with each other and a wider audience in order to engage in on-going discussions, reflections, opinions, reactions, etc., how does a teacher take the "con" of required writing away from blogging? Perhaps, if educators provide opportunities for students to blog and collaborate in the classroom and at home without making it mandatory.  In my years of teaching, I allow students to engage in online writing and blogging that is not mandatory, but provides opportunities for them to collaborate and write without having it "count."  Crazy right?  What sixth grader would go out of their way to do extra work?  Surprisingly, a lot of my students took the various opportunities to respond to a question, engage in a free write, etc. and then respond to their peers.  Additionally, students need to realize that they are in fact writing/blogging for a larger audience beyond the "teacher."  While security issues make this difficult for educators to incorporate into the classroom, students can blog with another grade level or a different school located anywhere on the globe.  This allows the audience and purpose of the blog to grow for students in addition to providing opportunities to collaborate with others besides their peers and the teacher.  

Blogging is a collaborative tool that allows students to become not just authors but editors and creators of content for larger audiences in order to improve writing skills and critical thinking skills.  The pros and cons of blogging are interrelated, but that does not mean the "cons" stop collaboration.  It's about learning how to work through the "cons" of blogging as a collaboration tool in order to provide meaningful learning opportunities and experiences for students to write and critically think about content.  The collaborative tool of blogging allows students to engage in, "...connective writing, a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demands clarity and cogency in its constructions, that is done for a wide audience, and that links the sources of the ideas expressed...we write not to just communicate but to connect with others who can potentially teach us more," (Richardson, 2010, 28).  

     

References

Downes, S.  (2004).  Educational blogging.  Educause Review.  Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0450.pdf

Leelefever.  (2007, Nov. 29).  Blogs in Plain English.  [Video file].  Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI  

Ramaswami, R.  (2008, November).  The prose of blogging (and a few cons, too).  T.H.E. Journal.  Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://thejournal.com  

Richardson, W.  (2010).  Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.).  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin