Blogging as pedagogy

As we’ve mentioned a number of times, non of our team are really natural bloggers.

But of course we need to consider blogging as a tool for our learners.  I’ve always felt that many teachers see blogs as an “add-on” or a “project”.  But I’ve always thought they could be (should be) more integrated into learning.  And recently I found a post from another teacher which seemed to agree with this…

Blogging should not be an add-on, not an isolated project, but should be seen as PEDAGOGY.

Ann Davis shared a definition of Pedagogy beyond a  simple “method of teaching” (unfortunately I was not able to find a source of the definition… it seems to be floating around in so many spaces without a common attribution or source.)

The strategies, techniques, and approaches that teachers can use to facilitate learning.

Blogging can support the strategies, techniques and approaches to facilitate the learning in your classroom no matter what grade level, age group and subject area. Blogging supports four primary areas:

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Reflecting
4. Sharing

In each one of these areas, blogging can be a strategy to facilitate learning

1. Reading
   1. in digital spaces support students’ skills in our increasingly digital reading environment
   2. becomes a personalized content experience versus one size fits all approach
   3. turns into a collaborative and connected experience
   4. in digital spaces supports organization via archiving, categorizing and tagging of information
   5. blogs is the start that continues to deepen with writing on blogging platforms
   6. is part of research with non- linear platforms
   7. is an essential component of content curation
   8. supports content annotation which links to future writing
2. Writing
   1. is about more than text (how do we communicate in a variety of media forms?)
   2. gives students choices to communicate ideas in different media platforms
   3. on a blog is writing for an audience
   4. is about a conversation through commenting
   5. becomes multi-layered and non-linear by using hyperlinks to connect ideas, concepts and resources
   6. in digital spaces give students skills for our increasingly digital world
3. Reflecting
   1. can’t be just for reflection sake, but needs to drive improvement
   2. is the basis of re-evaluating your teaching and practices
   3. techniques can be supported by Making Thinking Visible Routines
   4. is part of a meta-cognitive (thinking about your thinking)  process
4. Sharing
   1. is part of the feedback loop
   2. is an integral part of the process of learning
   3. is how you disseminate your students’ work to a global audience
   4. as a technique of building and maintaining a digital footprint
   5. is the foundation of a remix culture

The original article is here, and you can leave comments: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/06/03/blogging-as-pedagogy-facilitate-learning/?utm_source=Edublogs&utm_campaign=e075ccbf5a-Edublogs_Weekly_6_11_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0417f70ab4-e075ccbf5a-81430498