In the post Plock writes, “to blog is to teach yourself what you think” (par. 12). As an elementary education major I have been taught that the more a teacher can engage a student the more he or she will learn. There is a Chinese Proverb that discusses this theory I little more clearly, “Tell me, I will forget. Show me, I may remember. But involve me, and I will understand.”
When we blog we are involved with the subject that is being taught. Blogging actively includes the student with the material, it gives them the ability to do more than to cram the readings in their brain, only to vomit them out on an examination a week later. Phil Greaney writes,
My mind is racing, thinking about writing and then writing what I’m thinking. What I mean is – when readers add comments, the notion of a fixed identity of the blog author is complicated, undermined even. The author stops being the sole provider of both the content (the blog post) and the terms in which it is read (that bit bloggers write to explain why they’re blogging). In other words, the blogger is no longer the only source of meaning in a blog.
This quote is a great example of this engagement that is created in blogging as well as the added benefit of blogging and discussion boards within a classroom like Blackboard or Google Classroom. The student writes the blog post sharing thoughts on what was read based on the questions presented by the teacher, then participates in the discussions written by classmates which enables the student to see the subject on different levels through the eyes of his or her classmates. The student can reflect on these readings and leave a comment producing feedback for the author of the post.
What do you think about blogging to sort out your thoughts within the learning process? Please share in the comments below.
Blake – Plock, S. (2009, September 11). Teach Paperless: Why Teachers Should Blog. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-teachers-should-blog. html