PlayTech 1

A web blog has become one of the fastest growing trends of this decade. A blog is a personal webpage that allows users to blog or journal about anything they feel they would like to share with the world. Blogging is the term that is used in the production of personal journals and reflections about all sorts of topics. Bloggers can post anything from promoting a business or product to keeping friends and family up to date that may be on the other side of the world. A blogging website allows users to routinely post as well as readers the ability to comment on a specific blog.

While there are thousands of sites out there to express yourself, here is a quick 411 of the different types:

• Discussion Forums: Topic Centered - discussions are organized into topic threads, anyone in the community can start a thread on a topic of their choosing, and posts require someone to reply for a discussion to take place.
• Blogs: Author Centered - posts are made by the blog's author, posts are opinion pieces written in authors voice, readers can add comments to the posts, and organized in reverse order for most recent activity. 
• Video Logs: Movie Centered - posts are in video form, posts can be something of interest or something to show how to do something, viewers can add comments to video, and videos can range in accessibility - youtube. 

An affordance to using a blogging website allows people to speak freely without judgement and the pressure of not having people stare at you as you respond. Blogs can be used by learners to interpret their understanding of information personally. It is a great medium to interpret classroom questions because all responses focus from the author. Also, this allows you to view a perspective from a single author versus multiple views a discussion board creates. Blogs are one directional in the way that it is author centered. Yes, readers can comment, but the author decides the content and voice of the page. Another use for blogs is the capability to follow other bloggers. Like social media, following someone gives you easy access to seeing new blogs from them and can alert you when someone posts something new. I viewed and experimented with a few blogging sites and this is what I found.

• WordPress: This site is one of the most popular blogging sites specifically because of it's capability to customize and add as many add-in (features) as you like. This site allows users or even companies to have a site that appears to be managed by a professional web company. The con of using this site can the many options of customization for less-experienced users. 
• Tumblr: All the cool kids are using it! Tumblr was one of the first blogger sites to combine blogging with social media. This quickly caught the attention of younger generation and rather than produce their own content they can post items that they like from other sites. The cons to Tumlr is that it is more of a social network than a blog.
• Blogger: A blogging website powered by Google. This site is easy to use and allows for easy-to-start layouts that are customizable. All you need is a google account and you can begin blogging. Cons to this website is that some of the layouts are outdated.

I chose to blog with Blogger because of the access for my classroom. Our district has started to streamline computer usage and they are beginning with google accounts. Before this year my students were having to remember multiple log-ins and passwords that it became a hassle to deal with in class. This year, all online programs align with their access to google. For every website that we use in class it connects back to their google email account. This is very beneficial for me because I can use this website to post for my classroom and my students can actively get involved from home just by logging into their google account.


Education has focused on differentiation and allowing students to express themselves in different mediums. A student that cannot read or write because they are new to this country does not mean that they cannot very well express to you the answer via spoken interpretation. This blog does such thing for my class....those that are not comfortable responding in class can respond via blog and reflect on what was said in class. Another view of blogging is our district has put in place for the past few year an initiative that they want all students to write. Blogging would be an excellent course for this in my classroom because it is a new way of self reflection instead of the interactive notebook that every other class uses. Since I am a technology class, this is the perfect medium to take the everyday spiral reflections and apply a technology spin to them.

Another benefit of using this blog in my classroom is for students who miss class for whatever reason. I know that every student just loves to come to class and actively learn (yeah right), it just sometimes isn't possible. I am continually reflecting yearly on ways to better my process for students to make-up work and still get the instructional emphasis that was given in class. Daily I can post the topics covered in class and the emphasis so students can use it to reiterate as well as get caught up. This could also lead into extending my lesson (sometimes there are not enough minutes in the day).
This year I am focusing on extending the classroom and I can facilitate this via blog. For example: at the beginning of the year I have students identify computer components by completing an online scavenger hunt. Students research the 26 computer pieces and present in a powerpoint presentation. A way that I can extend this activity is by writing a blog over input and output and how the relates to the components they searched for in class. This is also an easy enrichment activity to those who are ahead of the game in class to work on while I work with those that are not so quick to pick up activities in class.

Even with the best ways to improve your classroom, there is always the opposite side of the idea...obstacles that we just can't get over. Obstacles that I may face with this blog is the mere fact that my students just don't want to read what is posted. Lets be honest, if it's not Facebook or Twitter my competition is steep. Also, not all of my students have access to internet or a computer at home. Another factor is that a student was out late because of a sporting event or extracurricular activity. These are all real factors that affect my classroom. Ways to overcome this is offering access at the end of the day during our intervention period or at the beginning of the day before school starts so those who don't have access as home can still view it. Also, students can access my blog via smart phone through the google app. Another way to entice participation is to include the same humor and excitement that I try to in class in my blog and also by providing something that they can actually use instead of a basic vocabulary instruction.