Journal Entry 4 - Moderating Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blogs

In her essay, Mrs. Deubel confesses that she is a “digital immigrant” who is not very web-savvy. Then she reflects on her thoughts on using blogs in classroom settings. She touches on the fact that, in education, ethics must be taught prior to the use of blogs. While this is true, it seems like for her, teaching this in addition to how to properly use a blog, something in which she seems to not fully understand, may be difficult to do. For someone like me, who is very confident in their technology skills, digital tools such as blogs will be an integral part of my classroom. As she says in her essay, I will also require the use of the blogs on continuous basis. In my setting, mathematics, I have ideas running through my head of using blogs as a student-to-student and teacher-to-student homework helper as well as a way for parents and the community to get involved in the learning process. As I have implied before, the importance of parental involvement in learning cannot be overstated and any way to assist and encourage parent involvement is welcomed in my classroom. The guidelines Mrs. Deubel uses in her essay are all things that I have already considered when contemplating techniques to utilize technology in the classroom. I feel that the use of classroom blogs will greatly enhance the learning curve of students in a mathematics classroom.

Question 1: What are the concerns of using blogs in a classroom?

Any time students are able to access the internet in the classroom, concerns arise about student ethics. Teaching ethics in the classroom is something all teachers must do, no matter the subject they teach. A private network, for example, would eliminate these concerns, as teachers and administrators would be able to constantly monitor the use of the class blogs. Another concern is the lack of use, which can be controlled by including a posting requirement for a grade.

Question 2: If blogs are so great, why don't all teachers use them?

Good Question?! In my personal opinion, all teachers should use some type of technology such as blogs in their classrooms. I feel the reason that such technologies are not utilized is two-fold. First off, some teachers may not be very tech-savvy, and thus afraid of integrating something they are not confident with into their classroom. Secondly is the availability of resources. Not all students have a personal computer at home, and the computers on most public school campuses are inadequate or have limited availability. This is an unfortunate effect of having publicly funded schools.