Coming of Age: An introduction to the new worldwide web

By Alan November

Blogging represents one of many tools that pioneering teachers are using to empower students to take more responsibility of managing their own work and adding value to the world. Educators are typically not neutral about blogging. There are fierce defenders and fierce critics. Each has an important voice. As Will Richardson points out, “One of the reasons we fear these technologies is because we as teachers don’t yet understand them or use them. But the reality is that our students already do. It’s imperative that we be able to teach our kids how to use the tools effectively and appropriately because right now they have no models to follow.”

Chris Burnett
www.visitmyclass.com/blogs/burnett
“Never. I will never use a blog in my teaching.” My colleague, Chris Burnett, a writing/literature teacher in inner city Michigan for 12 – 14 year olds was clear about her feelings for blogging as she walked out of her first “How to Blog” workshop in the summer of 2004 at my Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston. Chris was a veteran teacher of more than twenty years who was piling up the reasons not to use this popular web communications tool. At the time, she was not alone. Here are common concerns I’ve heard from other teachers:
• Blogs give too much freedom for students to express themselves
• Teachers will never be able to control comments
• Students and parents will have too much access to other students’ published work
• Students will feel too much pressure to improve as they see the work and comments of others.

One year later, Chris has replaced these misgivings with sheer determination for publishing a blog that features student work for authentic review. It is an understatement to say she has changed her mind. She now gives her own workshops for teachers who are willing to learn more about the power of this medium.

“Blogging is now central to student motivation and the whole process of students taking more responsibility for the quality of their work. I have never had students who are so excited about writing. For the first time in my career, I have students who are submitting their writing to me without an assignment, just so they can have their work published for review by an authentic global audience. We have had the author of one of our books, Chris Crowe who wrote the very powerful Mississippi Trial 1955, reply to our blog. “I’m especially pleased by your students’ reaction to my characters; I tried to make the fictional people as complicated and interesting as people are in real life. The students’ insight into the issues and characters are right on, and it’s clear they’re doing careful reading and thinking. I’m looking forward to talking to everyone in a week or two.”

Chris goes on to explain, “Perhaps what surprised me the most is that when the school year finished I had students who continued to reflect on their writing during our summer vacation. It is very validating to me to have a student come back to school to share how they visited the class blog during their vacation to see if there were any comments from around the world. I hope that my students that I have in class this year will be just as enthusiastic about publishing on the blog. One can only hope.”

How often have your students reflected on their writing portfolio during summer vacation?

Shift of Control
Unlike word processing, or using an interactive whiteboard, or having students present a PowerPoint presentation to classmates behind closed doors, blogging shifts the concept of the control of information. Perceptions of time, space and relationships are expanded. The audience moves from teacher and class to the world. Teachers are no longer the sole or even the primary arbitrator of student work. It is even possible that teachers do not have to work as hard to motivate traditionally failing students or to set much higher expectations for excel