Week 3: Readings Reflection

I enjoyed reading “A Complete Guide to Using Blogger in School”, by Richard Byrne, because it gave me many ideas to utilize blogs, which I had not thought about before. However, because I am not a teacher in any School Districts around the U.S., I find myself thinking of way that I would could use this new acquired skill in order to enhance the learning at my current employment, with the Department of Defense (DoD). As a curriculum developer, I am implementing Blended Learning (BL) framework for curriculum design and development. BL implementation will enhance academics’ skills and confidence using technologies, formulate a consistent definition to inform academics’ practice, and provide frameworks for objective evaluation of BL practice. I intend to utilize Blogs as one of the tools to enhance the teachers’ abilities deliver training to our students in a new environment. Living and teaching in a predominantly military community will provide many benefits to teachers and students alike. As teachers in military installations the most important use for the blog at first would be for distribution of information. They use white board to post quizzes on a weekly basis. Many military students have such busy lives that they have to be reminded by the teacher about the quiz. By blogging, the teacher can keep the students informed of important dates such as quizzes, projects, as well as have the information accessible when they are not in the classroom. Another way that the teacher can use a blog for distribution is to post additional content that could enhance a lesson and the ability for students to further their learning. Teachers could post presentations, videos, or documents and worksheets that can give access to the students when not in the classroom. Thus keeping the students informed and involved in their learning.

Another way that blogs can be used to enhance assignments is by having students respond to questions or reminders that teacher post. By doing so, the students are engaged in the content of the lessons while developing their critical thinking skills. This method of learning is ideal to have the students respond to the teachers’ reminders, and to have open conversations with their peers. One incentive that the teachers can use it to give extra credit to the responses/post, since as a way to encourage the use of the new tools available to them, especially with blogs.

The process would be to get the students to transition throughout the academic course by using blogs for distribution, then slowly getting the students involved through discussion, and then having students effectively demonstrate their comprehension, understanding, and ability in creating and maintaining a blog themselves. As a final project they can create a blog on any topic that they want, by posting regular updates as they research their topic, then post their presentation, pictures, audio/video files to show proficiency with the lesson. Finally, by using blogs, the communication is enhanced between the teacher and students, but most importantly the students are able to enhance their learning as well.