Pupil possessive.
The prevalence of so many writing blogs in elementary school classes, rather
than (shall we call them?) research blogs, suggests that even the blog evangelists
understand that there are certain basics that have to be internalized before pupils
are able to constructively make use of the blogosphere. Telling our pupils to
write a few sentences about a topic and then posting what they write is a rather
basic task, and unless we (inaccurately, to my mind) except the world to read
what they've written, hardly more encouraging than printing out a booklet of their
writings and distributing it to their parents. If what we want them to do is develop
information literacy skills such as seeking out and finding, and sharing information,
perhaps instead of a writing blog, we should start them off on a group research
project where each member of the group is expected to find and contribute a different
aspect of the intended whole. Then again, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that
we see very few group research projects and so much more basic writing assignments
posted to blogs. A group research task demands both a certain level of competence
with the tools being used, and an understanding of their conceptual underpinnings.
When teachers start their pupils blogging via simple writing assignments, they
seem to instinctively (and perhaps even correctly) understand that their pupils
aren't ready for "higher level" tasks.
Writing a wiki could perhaps
achieve that same group-oriented whole as a collectively researched blog, but
in an educational setting I tend to think that a blog would better fit the needs
and desires of a classroom. The blog better fits the way in which pupils understand
their place in the classroom and in the world. I haven't seen any research about
this, but if the objective is encouraging pupils to write and to contribute, it
makes sense to me that they would derive more satisfaction from seeing their own
names next to their contributions rather than seeing a collaborative effort that
doesn't maintain their individual contributions.
Go to: Do you believe in magic?, or
Go to: A
magic strand?