Blogging and RSS

How does blogging and RSS fit into the Common Core State Standards? If you were an educational technology specialist working for a district, what would you recommend to an ELA Coordinator who is looking to re-align maps to the CCSS. What would you do to prepare teachers for the standards change scheduled for next year?

The Common Core State Standards emphasize the importance of literacy instruction and goals. Students must read, write, listen, and speak to acquire information and reach their academic potential. There are many ways to merge 21st century technologies and literacy in ways that address the Common Core State Standards. For example, blogging can be utilized in order to meet literacy goals. Blogging is an electronic way to communicate and share ideas with classroom peers and people from all over the world. In blogging, students elaborate their ideas in writing, read others' comments, and reply by sharing their ideas. By sharing ideas students can also reflect on their work and thoughts. Listening and speaking about blog entries during classroom instruction can be utilized to further address literacy and technology goals. Another great reason for using blogging in the classroom is that it promotes social interaction amongst students. Like I have mentioned before, students will need to interact with each other in order to blog. Students, who would not ordinarily speak in front a crowded classroom of their peers, may be more inclined to contribute to discussion via blogging. Of course, going into different blogs, reading and responding can take a lot of time. Therefore, RSS can be beneficial to helping the reader stay up to date on their favorite blogs. RSS is a really simple syndication that allows individuals to keep abreast of different blogs and other text via the Internet. This ultimately helps teachers and students save time and focus on the readings most important to them.

Since technology is becoming more integrated into daily classroom instruction, we, as educational technology specialists, need to use technology in ways that enhance classroom instruction and promote constructivist learning. Using technology in the classroom should not be simply focused on addressing basic standards like typing. Using technology in innovative ways can help guide our students toward superior learning and the development of problem solving skills. Teachers need to know the difference between the skills that our students acquire through daily exposure and the skills they need to be taught. The skills that students acquire through daily exposure, which are essential to following technological classroom directions, include knowing how to type, where to find the right application on the desktop, right click and double click. Skills that students need to be taught include understanding where to find scholarly, reliable articles and locating and organizing information by using different library database and internet tools. The ELA standards want our students to use technology more proficiently than ever before. Classrooms should utilize the internet as an essential part of producing and publishing writing. Blogging, as an electronic learning environment, will ensure students interact with each other inside and outside of the classroom. In addition, through blogging, students should be able to evaluate information offered in any format or media, according to the CCSS. The reason why it is important that higher technological skill expectations become an essential part of the CCSS is because we need to provide our students with the skill sets necessary to achieve success inside and outside of the classroom.

In order to be able to meet the standards teachers need to understand how to effectively integrate technology into their classroom and manipulate all technological tools offered to them. Teachers need to show their students that they have strong knowledge of the technology before demonstrating to them how to use it. Students are intuitive, and can sense when teachers are struggling with technology. Some students might even know some programs better than their teacher, and as a result, lose interest during instruction. At the end of the day, there are so many different technologies available, which can dramatically change our students’ school experience. Even though it may take time to learn certain programs, teachers need to use technology in the classroom because current and future generations of students are living in an era when technology is infused in daily life. As a result, we as a teaching community must update our teaching strategies to effectively infuse technology into classroom instruction and performance assessments.
In order for teachers to be capable of using a technology to its full potential they must learn how to operate classroom tools effectively. There are many ways to get trained, for example, professional development seminars, videos, and classes. Some classes can be general, and cover a broad span of educational technology, or they can very specific and focus on the functionality of one device. Each can be useful; it just depends on what your learning needs are as a teacher, which are ultimately determined by the needs of your students. It is important for teachers to participate in continual education, and constantly update their knowledge of technology. Taking classes or being taught is not the only way teachers can educate themselves on new technology. Teachers can customize an RSS to group articles, newsletters, and other information feeds from select authors to keep up with current educational tools. As the times change, so do the tools we use to teach with, and as educators we must also be able to adapt our way of teaching to the different and changing needs of the new generation.

Why could blogging change, or not change, the traditional classroom?

I strongly agree that blogging can change the traditional classroom. The traditional classroom only offers books and the teachers’ presentation as a learning tool. In the 21st century classroom, I believe that technology can and should be used to improve the learning process. Technology is one of the most useful and versatile tools that a teacher can manipulate easily to help their students learn in the way that is best for them. The reason why I think blogging can change the traditional classroom is because it offers an opportunity for connectivity. It gives a student the chance to interact with their peers, inside and outside of the classroom. A lot of time, students don’t have a chance to get to know all their classmates. A blog is a great place to get to know each other and learn at the same time. Connecting with other students or even people around the world opens students up to sharing ideas and point of views which helps you experience the real world and also learn from experience. When people are connected as a network, we tend to share our ideas and others reply to our comments giving us their insight. I feel like that’s one of the greatest ways to reflect on your work, or an idea with the rest of the world. Another great reason to use blogging is because teachers can save a lot of time during class. A lot of teachers post assignments and projects on the classroom blog. This allows students to have access anytime even though they are absent. A lot of students hate to write in general. This is a great way to make our students read and write more. Students hate the fact that they have to write something with pen and paper. But on the other hand, students love technology because that’s their generation. This alone can encourage even the shyest students to participate because in the blogging world there is no pressure. If students can learn while using technology and have fun, what more can you offer as an intentional teacher. In summary, I believe that blogging will change the traditional classroom into an enjoyable experience and give students an equal opportunity to learn. As a good teacher I believe that our job is to guide students to learn and help them experience learning by themselves inside and outside of the classroom.