Week 3-Engagement Activity 1

This reflection is related to creating a blog.  With primary school students, blogs have great potential to facilitate engagement, deep understanding and problem based learning if an appropriate scaffold is utilised (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  This PMI table explores the positives, negatives and implications of blogs.

Plus (positives)	Minus (negatives)	Implications (potential outcomes whether negative or positive)
It promotes academic engagement.	It has the potential for criticism and bullying.	It sustains engagement (instead of students getting bored).
It allows constructive criticism.	It takes teachers time to monitor the blogs to ensure comments are appropriate.	Students are able to deepen their understanding by adding to their blogs as a result of constructive criticism.
It promotes that use of creative writing and narratives.	It takes time for students to read and comment on other students blogs.	Students learn from each other by reading other students blogs, for example, students may explain things in a way that another students may understand better.
It is up to date and current.	It requires good internet access.	Teachers can see that the student has developed a thorough understanding, of a topic, or lack of, and requires further assistance.
The teacher can control the content.		Reflection in the form of a blog also deepens a student's understanding, as this task requires analysis, evaluation and synthesis.
It utilises self-regulation and student direction by encouraging students to adhere to safe, ethical and legal guidelines.		It meets the needs of different learning types.
It can include photos, links, vokis, and videos.		It facilitates multimodal learning.
It improves communication between the students and also the teacher.

I particularly like the idea that blogs can be used to facilitate creative writing, aide in the development of assignments, and be used in collating reports on a topic, for example, in the form of an expert jigsaw (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  I am beginning to understand that it is not the teacher using the technology to give the lesson, it is about the learner using the technology to enhance their learning experience, and it is our job as teachers to facilitate this (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  It is the teacher’s role to provide the scaffolding to ensure the learner can develop an understanding of the topic through creating meaning, adding to previous knowledge, and deepening this knowledge through a keen attitude to learn more (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  In the future in the primary school sector, I would like to utilise blogs to improve reflective and creative writing with students by facilitating students to create their own blogs and reflective pieces in these blogs (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).

Blogs could be utilised to support Social Constructivism learning theory by encouraging students to read one another's blogs and comment on these (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  Blogs could be used to support Connectivism learning theory by tapping into experts blogs on a class topic (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).

References:

Chomenki, S. (2008, January 31). Top 10 reason's to use a blog in the classroom [Video file].
         Retrieved March 13, 2013, from
         http://www.youtube.com/embed/PfJETK3am1M

CQUniversity Australia. (2012). EDED20491- ICTs for learning design: online study guide.
         Retrieved from

         http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115238