Ready, Set, Blog! Using blogging effectively in the college classroom.

Purpose of presentation

The purpose of this presentation is to help educators understand how easy it is to set up and use a blog to communicate with students. Additionally, educators will have the opportunity to see how blogging can be used by the students as a reflective tool.

Objectives of the presentation

Generate awareness of free resources available for blogging
Demonstrate the ease of setting up a blog
Discuss why faculty might want to use blogging
Share examples of how blogging can be used to enhance communication
Share examples of how students can use blogging to learn and reflect

Practical applications

Blogging is a simple technology that can be used by anyone with an Internet connection and is an excellent and simple way for faculty to communicate with their students. It makes class information more immediate, personal, and reflective when used properly. Blogging is an everyday part of most of our students’ lives that we can use to help them be more reflective and engaged. It is something that conference participants will be able to go home and utilize that very day with no complex tools or rules to learn.

Relationship to the conference theme

This presentation represents one of the simplest new and emerging technologies out there that can be used very effectively and easily in the college classroom. The presenter will demonstrate how she has used blogging in her own classes and the lessons she has learned from those experiences, as well as what research is saying about the use of blogs in education.

Information to support what is advocated

The benefits of reflection in the educational environment have long been established in the fields of teacher education, nursing, and management, among others. To be more specific, journaling has been found to promote transformative learning. We also know that employers are looking for individuals who are reflective as well as technologically literate. Blogging brings together reflection, journaling, and technology in an environment that students are familiar with and that feels current and relevant to them. Additionally, students take great pride in their blogs, seeing them as more of a product than an assignment. Blogging offers faculty the opportunity to meet students halfway, demonstrating an understanding of their culture while inviting them to learn something new.

2nd-Day Hands On: Ready, set, blog! Setting up your own educational blog.
In this session, participants will have the opportunity to set up their own class blogs and utillize some of the features available to enhance the blog experience for their students.

Biography
Suzy Cox is a faculty lecturer in the School of Education responsible for teaching courses on integrating technology in the K-12 classroom. She has worked with numerous schools to train teachers in technology integration and studies how technology can help students learn.

ready-set-blog

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