Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
There are many ways Blogs can be used in your class as a way to create a learner-centered environment. In a learner-centered environment, students themselves are actively engaged in creating, understanding, and connecting knowledge. When students post links to websites they are creating and adding to the knowledge base of the class. When they make a connection between an outside source and course content they are demonstrating their personal understanding of a subject. Finally, when students make comments on others’ post, they are connecting their prior knowledge, experiences and interpretations of the course material. At this stage, they are “making sense” of a phenomenon. In this sense, Blogs can be used to aide in the social construction of knowledge.
Below are some examples of how you may incorporate a Blog in your class. Make sure your course goals are in alignment with your choice in technology. Your success rate with Blogs or any other technology in the classroom will increase significantly if the use of a tool is aligned with your course goals.
If your course goal is to have students make connections between their readings and current events in the world, a Blog may be a good solution. For instance, if you are teaching Psychology 101, you may want to set up a class Blog where students are encouraged to post links to news items that deal with your class topics. If your class materials are covering the effects of media on children, your students should go out and find news articles on topics such as violent video games and children, the link between cartoon violence and real- life violence, Bullies in schools, or the glorification of violence in music. When the students find articles, they can post a link to the article and a brief description of how the article relates to class. The instructor can then use that Blog posting as an example when explaining new course content.
Use the Blog to get students to take abstract concepts from your class and turn them into concrete real-life examples. This will allow students to see the relevance of the material they are learning and to Make connections between ongoing events in and outside the class.
Example
Violent Video Games?
I ran into this article that relates to chapter 7 of our textbook. The article talks about the effects violent video games have on young men that play them. The study suggest that a player’s blood pressure will rise while playing a game and that the players feel a sense of anxiety after playing violent games. The game they tested is Grand Theft Auto 3. I am not sure if I agree with the study because I own this game and I play it frequently. I don’t think this game makes me feel anxious or makes my blood boil. What do you think?
An example blog post.
Class blogs can be used as a way for students to demonstrate their exposure to different interpretations of the same phenomenon. For example, if you were teaching a course on Issues of Life and Death and one of your units was an analysis of capitol punishment. You could instruct your students to find and post links to web sites containing opposing viewpoints about capitol punishment. Within the post, the author would identify the arguments of each web site and discuss their merits. The students could also list the intended audience, what organizations do they represent, what types of evidence do they use to support their stance and what if any logical fallacies are being made.
Once the posts are made, the instructor could use the references as a foundation from which to critically analyze the different sides of the issue. By doing this, you give the students the ability to create their own course content and to have ownership in their learning. If students post challenging questions, use it as an opportunity to Model how to react to difficult questions so that students understand what scholarly discourse sounds like.
Example
Capitol Punishment
I found two websites talking about capitol punishment. The first site is an example of a capitol punishment supporter. Because they use few graphics and they begin by stating the errors from the “anti” death penalty side, I would guess that the targeted audience is people who already support capitol punishment or people who are in between. The author uses census data and crime statistics as his evidence.
The second site is obviously an anti capitol punishment website. They have pictures of protesters holding a sing saying “End state Sponsored Murder”. They also have a fact sheet showing proof that people have been put to death without proper trials and with lack of evidence. This site has a link where you can leave donations and is very professionally designed.
An example blog post.