Any teacher thinking about starting to blog with his/her students should be required to watch Konrad Glogowski's K12 Online Conference presentation, "Initiating and Sustaining Conversations: Assessment and Evaluation in the Age of Networked Learning", and follow it up with Jeff Utecht's session, "Sustained Blogging in the Classroom" (see my reflection on Jeff Utecht's presentation). These two sessions will bring years of experience to any teacher beginning to use blogs as an instructional tool. Both presentations provide many exceptional ways to use blogs as an engaging educational tool and how to keep yourself from merely using blogs as another way to write essays.
"Grades are definitive pronouncements, they stop conversations."
~Konrad Glogowski
This statement by Konrad Glogowski is still ringing in my head. If blogging is truly about conversations, we can not assess this work in a traditional sense as we would another piece of writing. Students must be taught that blogging is an evolutionary process. The teacher is key to this evolution. As students get more adept at aspects of their blogging their teacher must challenge them to further develop their skills and depth. If this constant challenge does not occur, student boredom will settle in and their blogging will deteriorate.
I also found this session valuable for myself as a blogger. I continue to attempt to find the time to use my blog as a reflective tool and to continue the conversations from blogs I read, Twitter posts, and other thoughts that occur to me. This presentation made me think of how I want my own blog to evolve. I hope the words I have to say are of importance to others. How will I continue to challenge myself to improve the evolution of myself as a blogger? This presentation gave me some great pointers!
tag: k12online07cl05, k12online07, konradglogowski, jeffutecht
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Image: 'traffic light reworked'
www.flickr.com/photos/94507863@N00/1288380740
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