The first time I used a blog was on March 2009. My
grade 5 (five) students were having the Primary Years Programme (PYP)
Exhibition. I thought I would like to include blogging as one tools to show the
process of the exhibition. I did not realize that considering blogging by just
posting assignments or journaling is not blogging. At that time, I used Blogger
(www.blogger.com). I was new at blogging
at that time. I found out that the structure is too difficult for my students
to use it. I was confused, too at that time. Then, I searched another platform
that provide the same service, Kidblog (www.kidblog.org).
I found out that this blog site is easy to use and safe for the students. I
remembered that safety was my first priority when I decided to include students
in blogging. I can manage the setting
so that I can restrict the level of visibility of my students’ blog from completely private, only the
teacher can see posts, to completely public, like a regular public blog. As a teacher I can leave students
"private" comments that only they can see and I can edit comments
others leave if I feel the need to. By using Kidblog, my students can log in
easily. I registered students by uploading a spreadsheet of user names and
passwords. This makes it very simple to get my students on the site without the hassle of
remembering which email was used or the barrier that many my students don't yet have email accounts. Another plus of having
Kidblog is that this platform is free.
As I have said before, I
thought that blogging is just by posting assignments from meas a teacher or journaling
from my students’ point of view. Now, I realized that posting assignments or
journaling is not blogging. For me, the intention of using blog is to provide
my students to interact about the content which can be done outside the
classroom or school hours. I remembered at that time, since the school where I
worked is a state school, there was a strike. All schools community were not
allowed to go to work. The students were kept at home by their parents. It was
a stressful time since at the same time, my grade 5 (five) students were
preparing their PYP Exhibition. During the preparation of the PYP Exhibition, I
became a mentor for my students. There should certain times where the students
met me and discussed about their progress. Since I was not allowed to come to
school, I communicated with my students through Kidblog. I blogged at my blog,
then my students checked and followed the directions stated on my blog. When my
students created a blog, thier blog was like a showcase for their work. It is a
place to share learning because it was not only me as the teacher who gave
inputs, but their friends also provide feedback to the blogger.
References
Blogger. (n.d.) Retrieved from www.blogger.com
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