[Blogger]. (n.d.). Retrieved July 11, 2019, from https://www.udemy.com/blogging-for-business/
Blogger: Supporting Alternative Learning Environments
7/11/2019
by Vivian Smallwood
I would begin by giving my colleagues examples of how Blogger can be used in a variety of alternative learning environments and curriculums to support student achievement of the ISTE standards. Blogger can be used in blended, flipped, fully online, and PBL environments to enhance student learning, increase collaboration, and promote refinement of ideas due to publishing their information to the world instead of just in a classroom environment. I would also point out that my colleagues could use Blogger as a tool to communicate with students through blogging since that can sometimes be difficult in fully-online or blended learning environments.
How would you investigate this tool collaboratively with students?
It is important for the instructor to have a base knowledge of a tool before bringing it to students to check for safety features and relevance, but once that was complete I would have students create their own blogs with a personalized theme. They could then create a post telling the class what they believe their blog could be used for after playing around with all of the features of Blogger and seeing what all of the available options are for customization, add ons, links, etc. I would create a Google Doc for them to post all of the links to their individual blogs so they could see what their classmates created, and then they could respond to each other's posts.
How might you use this tool to promote digital citizenship OR empower student learning?
Blogger can be used to promote digital citizenship because it is a public forum where people from all over the world can view students' blog posts and comment, and students can do the same on other peoples' blogs. This is a great way to teach students proper online discourse and communication skills. Students can also learn how to be digital citizens by properly citing or remixing images, websites, video links, and other artifacts that they include in their blog posts to give credit to the original author.
How might this tool transform your work with colleagues and/or students?
I could use this tool with colleagues to display work that we are doing in the classroom and share ideas for projects and other assignments or ask for feedback on my lesson planning. We could also share digital resources like videos and online educational tools that would be mutually beneficial for others to use in their classrooms.
My work with students would be enhanced because communication between student-teacher can become faster and easier in an alternative learning environment. I can also use my Blogger page to post links to assignments, comment on my students' work and leave feedback, encourage them to work on their writing skills, and better communicate with students' families.
Which ISTE Standard(s) might be met by its use?
ISTE Standards for Students
- Empowered Learner: Students can choose what to post, seek feedback, reflect on their progress, and build a learning network of peers and other bloggers from around the world.
- Digital Citizen: Students will acknowledge their digital identity, practice ethical reuse of digital material, and communicate safely online.
- Knowledge Constructor: Students will locate a variety of digital sources to develop their blog posts, determine the credibility and perspective of these sources, create a collection of artifacts (blog posts), and explore real-world issues through digital sources and other Blogger sites.
- Creative Communicator: Students create original works and/or reuse/remix digital resources, students communicate ideas using a variety of digital artifacts (videos, images, text, etc), students publish content for their intended audience.
- Global Collaborator: Students connect with other Bloggers from around the world to share ideas/perspectives and work together.
ISTE Standards for Educators
- Learner: Educators can use Blogger to share ideas and learn from each other.
- Citizen: Educators use digital resources responsibly and model this behavior for students.
- Collaborator: Blogger can allow educators to connect with each other to improve practice, discover and share resources.
- Designer: Educators can use Blogger as a tool to create authentic learning activities for students as well as innovative learning digital environments (blended/flipped classroom, etc).
- Facilitator: Blogger allows educators to give students control over their learning by choosing topics of interest to explore and provides a creative outlet for students to express ideas, knowledge, and connections.
ISTE Standards: ISTE - International Society for Technology in Education. (n.d.). Retrieved July 11, 2019, from https://www.iste.org/standards
