Reading in the Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools, Spring, 2010

Instructional Strategy: Blogs

Source:
http://glossary.plasmalink.com/glossary.html

Crie, M. (2006). Using blogs to intergrate technology in the classroom. Glencoe/mcgraw-hill. Retrieved (2010, February 24) from http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47

Explanation of strategy:
Blogs are not only a great way to integrate technology in the classroom; they are also a great instructional strategy. Blogs can beneficial to used for many different educational purposes: classroom management, collaboration, and discussion. Teachers and students both have different uses for the strategy. Teachers can use blogs as a tool to assign task, provide resources, facilitate discussions, keep student portfolios, etc. Students use this strategies as a means of reflection, communication with others (in class or out of class), find resources, or to complete an assigned task. Glencoe /McGraw Hill gives four points to why blogs are a beneficial instructional strategy, (1) It motivates students who may not speak up in class, to do so through the internet where they may feel more comfortable to state their opinion and views. (2) It gives students an opportunity to read and write (the basic education fundamentals that you can never seem to practice these skills too much). (3) Blogs let students become apart of a group which results in collaboration, (teaches students to facilitate discussion, as well as effectively participate in a discussion). (4) Creates tools that will enable scaffold learning (which is another instructional strategy) and mentoring among the peers participating in the blog.