Journal 3

“Five Don’ts of Classroom of Blogging”
Julie Sturgeon

The article talks about five important tips teachers need to know before starting online journaling. A teacher would have to make sure guidelines are in place as well as objectives. Make sure both the students and teachers are aware. Make the teacher understands the capability of using blogs in a classroom. Take the time to practice as a class, involving all the students. Another good point is to make sure the teachers and students are using the blogs for educational reasons and not for social networking. It is for students to help each other and get feedback on assignments. Third, make sure the teacher and school do their research and do not go for the one that is the cheapest. They need to realize that this is for a school setting therefore you do not want to but the cheapest that has no security. Teachers do not want their students to have access to just anything or outside people having access to students’ information. A teacher needs to realize that they might not always want the blogs in a sequential order, therefore make sure you plan what you want to teach. Make sure that the teacher is ultimately the person in charge of the blog.

I think Sturgeon did a very good job explaining the Don’ts of classroom blogging, but also showed ideas of what to do. Some of the things that Sturgeon talked about are so basic one does not even think about them when talking about blogging so I am glad someone put them out there to remind teachers of the little things they have to be aware of. I liked the part about “But the potential trouble is worth the rewards. You just have to plan around the potential problems”. Yes, there are a lot of potential troubles when dealing with the internet, but there are potential troubles with a lot of things teachers do in the classroom. One just has to be aware of these troubles and find ways to get around them.

Questions:

1. When setting up guidelines and objectives what is one of the things Davis advising the teachers to do so that the students understand the guidelines?
To have them sign a code of conduct that covers areas such as bullying, slander, and foul language.

2. Why should teachers not force a sequential style?
If it is strictly set up for a sequential setting, then sometimes a student’s most prized works can get buried. Yan recommends structuring entries by topics rather than by time.