Elevation

There are many things in life that befuddle our minds and we seek reprieve by talking to a friend or a family member. Somehow being able to unload our thoughts can precipitate some relief. We go through a catharsis episode of being able to express and bring into consciousness ideas, problems, fears, feelings etc and more than often things just fall into their right places.

I think blogging our thoughts can have the same outcome. Writing down our thoughts enables us to express ideas, answer questions, solve problems and even share knowledge to others.

Authentic learning seeps beyond the classroom walls and enter into the very lives of the students as they mull over their lessons. Students struggle with new knowledge that they learn but time constraint can pose as barrier. The students need enough time to really grapple and come to terms with new information for learning to take place. Blogging can be used as a tool for the student to arrest the time constraint factor in obtaining information because of the immediacy benefits it offers. However, whereas availability of information is fast in blogging, authentic learning will require a significant degree of time as individuals give, obtain, assemble, analyze and integrate knowledge. The blogger is actively giving out his/her thoughts and simultaneously searching and obtaining needed information to reach a higher order of learning. The blogger/student goes through defining tasks and subtasks, draws his/her own interpretations and reaches a conclusion/solution.

The teacher may ask students to create their blogs and have their own mini-classroom blogosphere. Every now and then the teacher can look at the student's blogs and allow authentic learning to take place as the students piece together the different things they glean from their class. The teacher's role shifts from being viewed as the source of information to that of being a support provider, collaborator and coach as students use their personal interpretations to create unique solutions to problems.

Besides clarification of ideas, blogging can also be used for expansion. Expansion happens when the student pursues an idea that has struck him/her which may have not been apt to share in the classroom for lack of time or maybe it was a little off topic but with blogs mediated by teacher the student would still have the opportunity to express this thought and the teacher and classmate may build upon this thought and create an active learning community unlimited by the physical walls of the classroom and time that is allotted for a class.

Most blog providers make their tools user-friendly and allow versatility in their pages. Blogger. com allows its users to make changes on their page elements – adding sections on the main page and moving them to one column to another as well. Moreover, weblogs are versatile not only in terms of page layouts but also in the things that you can embed in the blog entries – pictures, film clips, slide shows, music, etc. This allows the student to further express his/her understanding through a myriad ways. Furthermore, this allows for more creativity and personalization. Ownership over knowledge is something that is important in education from a constructivist point of view as new learning would only make sense to the student once he/she has weaved in the new learning into the previous one which is essentially part of his/her person.

The versatility that blogging offers gives that characteristic of being an ill-defined task that is essential to authentic learning as the student tries to express him/herself in a medium that is most comfortable to him – which essentially allows a student to view a topic from different perspectives as he/she integrates different disciplines to expound on an idea and thus, inevitably elevating his thinking and his audience’s as well. Here the learners rise above the rote, factual level and are able to exercise critical and creative thinking.

Blogging in its versatility can be used in so many ways as a supplement to a lesson or even a culminating activity (publishing projects) but like all educational tools it must be used wisely and with caution. One of the main characteristics of blogging is the capability to have interaction with its audience via the comments they leave and possibly achieve collaboration. Nonetheless, because the blogosphere is a public space, there will be people within/out of the class that will leave comments that may not be constructive and might breed ill feelings – shame, anger, etc. which are all not conducive for learning. This would then call for better vigilance from the teacher to oversee such things and have the presence of mind to handle such things when they do happen.

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!