Blogging, Classrooms, Clarence

Today I sat down with the 8th grade team who asked me to come in and talk about blogging. All 8th graders have blogs and all of the teachers now how blog. But "Now what?"

I've only listened to half of Clarence Fisher's Keynote for the k12online conference (Don't want to ruin the LAN party fun!). He touches on how pedagogy has to change. Which is exactly what I told the 8th grade team today.

I sat down with them. All of us with laptops in hand and started by saying "If you are not going to commit to blogging...really commit to it, it will fail." I think that shocked them a little bit. I've set up more blogs for teachers than I can count. Some have been very successful while others have stopped using them after a week.

What makes the difference is commitment. Not commitment to blogging or blogs, but commitment to changing your classroom...change the way things run, change the way things work, change your assignments.

Lucky for me I have been thinking a lot about how to sustain blogging in the classroom as my k12online presentation on that subject is released on Thursday this week.

It's really no secret. You have to change the way your class runs, you can not add blogs to what you do, they have to become what you do! They have to become a learning tool, they can replace something you are already doing, or you will  have to rework your schedule to find a way to make them part of your classroom.

Teachers need to understand that blogging is not journaling...journaling is journaling. Blogging is a conversation, blogging is a reflection of thinking, a creation of knowledge all done in an open come-one-come-all format.

If you are not willing to change...then don't blog!

[tags]k12online07, blogging, pedagogy[/tags]

Technorati Tags: k12online07cl01, k12online07, k12online2007, blogging, education, pedagogy