Being a pre-service high school teacher for 2 years now I have observed that students have a constant need to communicate. Whether it is verbal or via text messaging, the constant need to know what is going on with the world around them and having the need to voice their opinion is amazing. To this day it still shocks me that students will spend all day with their friends at school and as soon as they arrive home it is straight onto facebook to talk to the same people they just spent the day with.
From these observations the inclusion of blogging within a unit of work could appeal very effectively to a high school student as it provided opportunities to communicate with peers, voice opinions and work with technology. After reading Marc Prensky (2001) findings it is very truthful that today's students are living in a digital age world and the pressure to support this is increasing. Blogging can been seen to support this need and provide engagement for the student as it is able to connect to what is currently being used in the digital world around them.
Being a science teacher it is a constant event in this subject area that students have whole group discussions about certain topics. These discussions have the ability to take up a lot of time in class where learning needs to happen. The use of a blog I have found to be very effective on topics such as evolution and cloning where students have strong opinions. If topics do arise in class I will post on my class blog the topic and points for students to consider. From this point students are to reflect on their blog about the topic and peers and myself can make comments. Before conducting in blogging students are made aware of the rules that are required for commenting and that their class blog is still a professional document and literacy skills need to be maintained.
For the senior science students blogging can be very effective in the EEI assessment that is required to be completed in year 11 and 12. This particular assessment requires student to design an experiment and record a journal of the process and produce a scientific report. This assessment can take between 2 to 3 terms to complete. By students using a blog for their journal the teacher is able to keep up to date with the progress of assignment and offer constant feedback.
Finally, regardless of subject blogging provides the opportunity for students to reflect on a days lesson and keep up to date with what is being taught in class. It is important for the student to reflect on a lesson to ensure that learning has been achieved. The teacher is also able to monitor if the student is having difficulty with certain learning areas and provide feedback support. In large classes it can become difficult for the teacher to observe every students work but by posting small activities in relation to the lesson for students to answer on their blog can allow for further observation to be achieved by both peers and teacher.
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