Blogging has emerged as an important and significant digital space in this technologically advanced century. Rare would it be to find an adult who doesn’t have his/her personal blog these days. Celebrity blogs have further popularized this medium in India. However, the education sector is yet to tap the manifold possibilities which inculcating blogging in the curriculum would initiate.
Travel down the memory lane to the time when probably you were in school, say around Class VII or VIII. You would pour hours and hours into reflections on writing a movie review, or the economic and political effects of wars on society or how plants have evolved over time, yet the only person who read your thoughts were the teacher. You wrote an essay and most likely after correction, it would simply end up in the teacher’s cupboard. Even if you felt that you had a brilliant idea and you were marked low, the teacher’s word would’ve been the last on it. But that wouldn’t be the case any longer as with an interactive platform such as blog, a student can reach out to a larger audience and may gather numerous more opinions on his work.
Students and teachers have a lot to say. They’re learning things every day and gaining knowledge by the boatload. What better way to express themselves than by blogging? Teachers can provide prompts or starters and kids can pick up and further expand on the ideas. Kids can post their writing, projects, thoughts and reflections.
Including the practice of blogging is slowly catching up in the Indian education setup. Many educators are thinking about it, but are unsure where to even start or how to get started.
This video may give you more of an insight into what are the benefits of blogging in classroom, and what you could get out of it with your students. Also, you might like to share it with your staff.
Blogs can prove to be a global learning community and communication centre which can grow to facilitate student learning for 21st century . This simple and straightforward guide will provide you a few more tips on how to effectively inculcate blogging in classroom teaching:
Why blogging?
To provide your students with an authentic learning opportunity and expose them to a wider audience.
Steps to blogging in classroom:
Reading Blogs
This should be the first step for both students and teachers alike to understand how blogs operate and gauge the magnanimous potential which it holds in relationship to learning.
Digital Citizenship
Through blogging, students unconsciously receive exposure to appropriate digital citizenship lessons such as internet safety, digital footprint, plagiarism, copyright etc.
Commenting
This is what makes blogs interactive. Skimming through comments helps distinguish and filter between poor, mediocre and quality comments. It also helps push the author of the post in a new direction, gives a new perspective and helps take criticism in a constructive manner.
Writing
Good Blog posts contain quality content. They expose the reader to both traditional and innovative new stylistics and their attention is also attracted to the logistics of digital writing such as hyperlinking, embedding, media, categorization etc.
