Right after this course started I decided to try an blog activity in my three sections of senior government. I wanted to challenge the recommendation from my readings that stated using blogs on a large scale can be a difficult process. Less is more is a great concept except how many public school teachers get to choose less than more.
The assessment was for all my 45 seniors to do three blog entries on Andrew Jackson. They posts were to be done from Andrew Jackson's view point or first person. I explained my expectations, but I didn't realize how much modeling I should've done. My students struggled knowing what first person meant. Then most of them didn't understand the use of a blog post. I realized after day 4 that I probably should've modeled a blog post and then did one with them in class using a blog rubric. I have heard some comments about how cool it is to have their blog "out there", but for the most part they seem to respond to this assignment with the same enthusiasm as the rest of the assignments.
It is frustrating to accept that this generation is not impressed with the bells and whistles of technology like I am. Correction, they are impressed with what is relevant to their social lives like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. The last one, Pinterest, is consuming our student population right now. Basically, I have to market my blog to my students. It will not market itself by just being a blog. Pinterest on the other hand could market itself right now, but in six months who knows if it will be replaced with another form of social media.
In a way it is reassuring to know that as an educator, the meat and potatoes of any lesson is it's core standards and objectives and not it's exterior facade. My assessment of Andrew Jackson is not dynamic because I used a blog as my media form, but because I failed model it and align it with my standards.
This never ending revaluation of my methods and uses of blogs is exhausting and yet refreshing.
I think I've heard recently that students view themselves in school to be very different beings than out of school (or when they don't have their academic hat on). How much more interested in the tools the internet has to offer when it involves their social media compared to a homework assignment!
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