The blog is a complex system made up of technology and human relationships that is changing the way we know, to produce new knowledge and share knowledge.
What caused the explosion of this phenomenon in the world of education? The explosion of this social technology, after hitting journalism, political participation, marketing and knowledge management in the world of work, could not but also involve education. Around 2000, a first group of pioneers and experimenters realized the enormous potential of weblogs as a way to promote a new way of teaching, learning and learning. In a short time countless experiences and experiments have come to life in every part of the world, involving subjects of all ages, school pupils of all levels (from kindergarten to post-graduate masters), teachers, teachers, researchers and professors of every subject, of courses in presence and on line. Even if you don't have to go very far in time it is not easy to retrace the history of this phenomenon that is expanding very fast. But perhaps it is not so important to try to mark the stages as it is essential, instead, to cite some experiences that have been and remain an example for the community of educational bloggers from around the world and sources of continuous stimulation for those who want to adopt this practice as learning resource. Everything was born from the experience of some and their willingness to make this practice known and spread. Experiences that have left a mark, that have resonated and that have moved many others to experiment are those of Peter Ford, at the British School of Amsterdam (NL) and of Will Richardson at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey (USA)
What are the advantages of teaching and writing blogs? The impact of weblog on teaching was perceived at two different levels. At a first level the practice of the weblog was perceived as strengthening and improvement of traditional teaching strategies. At a second level it was perceived as a disruptive technology that has the potential to radically transform the way in which schooling takes place. The more radical attitude on the pedagogical value of the blog as a disruptive and deeply innovative technology is what Alexis Halavis summarizes in this sentence.
“Successful teaching with the weblog implies that you change what is taught, how it is taught and how students learn it "
Reading these words, it seems that what the blog can cause in education is a real revolution. Alex Halavis, before publishing his chapter on the weblog in The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments, put his thoughts online to stimulate discussion and review of the pages he was writing about by the international pedagogical community. In this text the impact of the blog in the training is dealt with starting from the use of the blog as a technology to replace already consolidated practices to reach the disruptive scope of this social technology that establishes new educational relationships, allows direct access to universal knowledge it is a school of democracy.
The blog as a technology for strengthening established teaching practices. The first use of the blog was to replace traditional teaching materials with an online equivalent. At the beginning the blog was adopted in its most immediately recognizable form of diary or online newspaper to publish on the web didactic materials suitable for that format: it was used to publish diaries, journalistic articles, research notebooks and portfolio. The advantages of using weblogs in this scenario are obvious, especially due to the fact that weblogs provide an immediate writing environment that is open to the outside. The writing of diaries and journalistic articles are by now a traditional methodology in teaching the mother tongue and foreign languages. Writing articles is also commonly used for teaching other subjects, including science lab notes, sketchbooks and the arts portfolio. Teachers often encourage students to keep notebooks and sometimes use these notes to evaluate their progress.
Reading these words, it seems that what the blog can cause in education is a real revolution. Alex Halavis, before publishing his chapter on the weblog in The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments, put his thoughts online to stimulate discussion and review of the pages he was writing about by the international pedagogical community. In this text the impact of the blog in the training is dealt with starting from the use of the blog as a technology to replace already consolidated practices to reach the disruptive scope of this social technology that establishes new educational relationships, allows direct access to universal knowledge it is a school of democracy.
The blog as a technology for strengthening established teaching practices. The first use of the blog was to replace traditional teaching materials with an online equivalent. At the beginning the blog was adopted in its most immediately recognizable form of diary or online newspaper to publish on the web didactic materials suitable for that format: it was used to publish diaries, journalistic articles, research notebooks and portfolio. The advantages of using weblogs in this scenario are obvious, especially due to the fact that weblogs provide an immediate writing environment that is open to the outside. The writing of diaries and journalistic articles are by now a traditional methodology in teaching the mother tongue and foreign languages. Writing articles is also commonly used for teaching other subjects, including science lab notes, sketchbooks and the arts portfolio. Teachers often encourage students to keep notebooks and sometimes use these notes to evaluate their progress.
Another fundamental value of weblogs is to be an excellent tool for selecting, filtering, managing and mapping information. Already in 1945 the physicist Vannevar Bush published the article "As we may think" in which he posed the question "how can we orient ourselves amid the enormous amount of information and knowledge that our society produces?".
Bush hypothesized that in the future the mapping of knowledge space would be one of the primary ways to convey knowledge and wrote of the need for researchers to write down their paths, to keep track of associations and links during the discovery process. The blog used simply as a research journal can be a very useful tool in this sense.
Annotating the search process on a weblog opens up new opportunities: that of allowing the teacher's intervention along the process, such as control and guidance, and that of allowing the student to be more reflective and aware of the work he is doing. Students can use this tool to learn how to effectively manage information. Furthermore, by connecting directly to the sources instead of copying, they avoid the risk of plagiarism and are forced to face the problem of intellectual and legal ownership of an article; in this way they learn to appreciate the originality of each intervention and to try to request it from themselves, producing original pieces.
Bush hypothesized that in the future the mapping of knowledge space would be one of the primary ways to convey knowledge and wrote of the need for researchers to write down their paths, to keep track of associations and links during the discovery process. The blog used simply as a research journal can be a very useful tool in this sense.
Annotating the search process on a weblog opens up new opportunities: that of allowing the teacher's intervention along the process, such as control and guidance, and that of allowing the student to be more reflective and aware of the work he is doing. Students can use this tool to learn how to effectively manage information. Furthermore, by connecting directly to the sources instead of copying, they avoid the risk of plagiarism and are forced to face the problem of intellectual and legal ownership of an article; in this way they learn to appreciate the originality of each intervention and to try to request it from themselves, producing original pieces.
So far we have seen how blogs can be used as an online substitute for traditional tools and methodologies: journals, newspaper articles, portfolios and research notebooks. Weblogs can be very useful as a replacement for existing educational practices and technologies but their impact goes far beyond this. One of the biggest differences between blogs and other forms of educational technology is that the blog promotes public involvement, interaction with an extended community, experiential and collaborative learning and an extension of the learning process beyond the physical and temporal limits of a lesson in the walls of a classroom. Weblogs create virtual places of involvement and participation, where students can come into direct contact with materials, experience themselves and the world and can relate to others, intervening in the reality that surrounds them and giving rise to a an active learning process. The most obvious difference between keeping a traditional training diary or a portfolio of one's work and keeping a weblog is that the former are probably relatively private - basically shared between author and teacher and perhaps some friend, parents, and possibly some possible employer job - weblogs have the potential to be public. It is technically possible that the intervention in a blog could have thousands of readers.
Blogs open the doors of the classroom to the public, making educational communication extended to everyone and transparent. The blog can become like a class without walls open to the world. The interactions between teacher and teacher, and between students, become totally open to observation. Anyone can look inside the class and this openness is exciting and motivating news. Before allowing dialogue with external individuals, this openness has a strong impact among the students of that class, on the relationships they establish between themselves and with the teacher.
Blogs open the doors of the classroom to the public, making educational communication extended to everyone and transparent. The blog can become like a class without walls open to the world. The interactions between teacher and teacher, and between students, become totally open to observation. Anyone can look inside the class and this openness is exciting and motivating news. Before allowing dialogue with external individuals, this openness has a strong impact among the students of that class, on the relationships they establish between themselves and with the teacher.
I conclude by recalling that learning is a process of social construction of meanings. Interacting with others in places other than the classroom, interacting with people living in different contexts and cultures, gives students the opportunity to engage in an extended collaboration network and to become more aware and more self-confident. It is through these interactions that students find their own paths and search for their autonomy. Today's young people live in a globally interconnected world where they must find their place and define a personality recognized by the peer group. They can do this only if they are given the opportunity to come into contact with external reality and interact with others. A closed school, which stands as a protective wall and not as a springboard to the world cannot help them in this process. The interactive nature of blogs gives the opportunity to engage in the global community and to learn by becoming an active member of the community.
Alessandra Cinquegrani
I insert links to two educational blogs that well reflect the above
Alessandra Cinquegrani
I insert links to two educational blogs that well reflect the above
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento