Journal 9

Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students

Ruth Reynard

This article discusses the five most common mistakes teachers make when trying to incorporate blogging into their curriculum. The first mistake is ineffective contextualization. This refers to students rejecting the tool because they are frustrated with what the purpose is or why they are being made to use it. Teachers need to spend a great deal of time finding the right way to explain what the blog is and why they will be using it. Bogs tend to work best for students' personal reflections on their work. However there needs to be enough work done before students have anything to comment on. The second mistake is unclear learning outcomes. Students should use the blogs to further their learning and to do that, student's should use the blogs to communicate an analysis of a topic, a synthesis, new ideas in a certain subject and/or how to apply what they have just learned. The third mistake is misuse of the environment. Here the mistake is thinking that blogs can be used for discussions. Blogs are individual and personal dialogs that only go one way. Comments can be left but they do not affect the original post. The fourth mistake is illusive grading policies. This is where student's need to fully understand how their blogs will be graded. If student's do not understand why they are getting the grade they got, they will become frustrated and possible stop trying. Clear rubrics made available to students on what the teacher is looking for will create a better learning environment and further their expanding. The last mistake to avoid is inadequate time allocation. This basically means that students learn different and some pick up on technologies quicker than others. Make sure to give the time to every student to learn the tool so that they can participate in the assignments.

How can I use a blog?

I don't know how much I will be able to incorporate a blog into my classroom because of it being special education. If I teach a high functioning class, I may be able to use the blog as a means of using the computer in general. I would use the blog as a place for my students to practice typing and express their creativity through whatever their imagination comes up with.

How would I grade a blog for special education?

As far as grading it would be very simple, basically if they finish their short story or assignment, they get the points. I do not want to get into too many categories of grading or limit their work. Because this may be such a concept to grasp, it will be an in class assignment so that I can be there to help my students with their questions.

Reynard, R (2008). Avoiding the 5 most common mistakes in using blogs with students. Retrieved January 7, 2009, from The Journal Web site: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23434