Why I blog with Kids

I started this post two days ago. I wrote and wrote, and then deleted it all. But it has since come back to haunt me. Why do we blog with kids? Nancy got us started and ended with a powerful example of collaboration when we all jumped on her comments, defending our practices. But why do we do it? Why do we wander the trackless backwoods of education, working with methods untested, and untried, opening ourselves to abuse and misunderstanding from parents, administrators, and others who just don't get what we do?

Why do I blog with kids?

Blogging has brought forth a powerful change in my students' ideas of audience and voice. They now understand what it means to have an audience, they understand how to entertain, inform, and keep and audience. My students have come to see over the year that they are writers, and as writers, they can be involved and active in the creation of a classroom conversation and culture. Not all of them are writers and still, moving into the later part of the school year, this is not true for all of them (some of them still do not write often in their blogs), but for many it is. And that is an important change in attitude and in understanding.

Blogging has opened my classroom geographically and in time. My kids are free to talk anytime and post their thoughts and understandings anytime. They do not need to be seated in a desk in my classroom to learn something, and they know that. Their best thinking often happens at home, deep into the evening, and using the tools we have, we can utilize that time and capture their thoughts whenever and wherever they may be. I've had kids blog from home on sick days, and from other communities when they have been out traveling. They check in and let us know how they are doing. 

I blog with kids to help them realize they are part of the conversation and so that they learn in a protected space how to become part of that conversation. I do not believe we do kids any favours by sheltering them or filtering the world for them. That being said, I am not advocating throwing them into the wilds, but I do believe they must be eased onto the information highways and learn to become careful and critical consumers of real information. The research is clear. Kids need us to help them learn how to handle the massive amounts of content out there and blogging is a way for them to begin to make sense of where it all comes from and how it all gets created.

I don't blog with kids as a way to substitute grammar worksheets of other such practice materials. There has always been extremely little of that type of work in my classroom anyway and our blogs are never spaces where kids are told to practice grammatical constructs and ensure everything is neat and tidy. While I certainly encourage kids to spell check their posts and re - read what they write before it gets posted, them being teenagers, their posts often are error - filled. They still publish them. Thinking and learning is messy. Blogs are formative spaces and are not meant to be used for any type of summative evaluation. The focus is rarely on what we have learned, but is much more on what we are learning. Blogs are works in progress, and in that degree, they show us the real human beings that kids are developing into much more then a worksheet can.

 Finally, a less tangible, but just as important reason that I blog with kids is because it is part of the new stories we have to tell about classrooms. Using tools like blogs opens up the possibilities for our kids, it helps them learn to use new tools and changes their ideas of what education is, and what learning looks like in classrooms. It changes our mindsets as teachers, opening our own minds to the possibilities of using new tools and makes us question the validity and the value of learning in our age. Finally, blogs are a small piece of the puzzle of what education and classrooms needs to become. We must be through being holding tanks for kids who are putting in time until they can get out into the "real world." We must immerse ourselves in the real world. We must become active advocates for the importance of learning in our society and using blogs and other 2.0 tools shows that we understand and advocate this idea. They are part of the message.

Using blogs as reflective, formative learning spaces with kids can fundamentally alter our understanding of what needs to happen in classrooms. It can change our idea of the enterprise of education as a whole and it can change our ideas of success and value. As classrooms begin to change to more easily recognise the value of networked learning and reflective thinking, our ideas of successful classroom experiences with kids changes. We can recognise success in more forms and with more kids. This does not mean that we lower our standards or make things easier for kids. I actually believe it does quite the opposite. But it does mean that blogging with kids can fundamentally alter the landscape of classrooms, the power structure, and the space for individual thoughts and voices. We have a long way to go, but this school year has seen a lot more anecdotal evidence advocating for the inclusion of these tools as powerful possibilities. We ourselves, as educators, are still learning how to best utilize these tools for our kids, and with our kids. They are not a panacea that will solve all of our ills, but we never pretended they were. But they are a step in the right direction for classroom change.

Thanks Nancy for making me think. 

technorati tags: blogging, classroom, learning,

Comments

[astephens]

I like how you think. :)

[Jim]

I read your posting twice because it was so powerful and well worded. Keep up the great work. Your kids are lucky.

Jim

[Bronwyn G]

A lot of good reasons why you should blog with your kids.

You straddle a difficult balance, Clarence, and you do it well.

You're right - thinking and learning is messy. But we learn lots from mess, and we learn from cleaning it up!