7 Ways To Integrate Student Blogging Into Your Curriculum
Modern realities require unique solutions, especially in the field of education. Children need a new approach, extraordinary methods, and original motivations to involve them in learning and make them active participants in the process.
Blogging is one of those ways. It is difficult to call it innovative. Teachers started the first blogs at the very beginning of the development of blogging as such. But involving pupils and students in the process can be a powerful tool in the hands of an innovative teacher.
Look at the world university ranking, here student blogs have long become part of education, informal communication, and student culture.
Here are some statistics: every month, WordPress users publish about 70 million posts.
What prevents you from using this method in your educational institutions?
Perhaps teachers and educators do not fully understand how to integrate a blog into the curriculum. We have prepared for them a selection of ways and tips to help them do it quickly and efficiently. About everything in order.
What is an educational blog and what is its purpose
A blog is a public analog of an Internet diary. That is, the posts in it are open to the general public, which makes the blog a convenient tool for teachers. And it doesn’t matter if you teach all subjects in elementary school or teach a narrow discipline at the university, you can use blogs in your curriculum.
The purpose of blogging can be different. Usually, when teachers start using this tool, they have a specific goal in mind, but as their page develops, they realize that with the help of convenient tools and the right organization, much more can be achieved.
Here are the main tasks that are solved with the help of blogging:
- Student engagement in the learning process - A blog is what is modern and popular. Even students who are not very involved in the formal learning process in the classroom will be happy to take part in blogging, thereby getting involved in the overall educational process;
- The ability to distribute additional resources for learning - In separate posts you can give additional tasks, and interesting articles on the topic covered in the class, deepen knowledge;
- Raising the level of literacy of pupils and students - When posting or leaving comments, the student must ensure that everything is written correctly and correctly, that is, blogging can be a great incentive for students;
- Involving students in discussions - The offer to serve the topic in the comments will give everyone the opportunity to express themselves, which results in an interesting discussion and, as a result, deepens and consolidates the material;
- Teaching a culture of behavior on the Internet - If you set certain requirements for posts and comments when starting a blog (politeness, respect, a ban on profanity, etc.), then this will lay the foundation for behavior on the Internet in the future.
Different blogs may have different goals. You can start a blog dedicated to the organization of some kind of celebration, you can devote it to your students' hobbies, a subject, or in general school life. It is important to properly integrate the blog into the curriculum to get the most out of it.
7 Ways to Integrate a Blog into Your Learning Process
To achieve your educational goals with the help of a blog, it is not enough just to start blogging. It is very important that it organically enters the learning system, becomes its tool, and not a distraction.
Therefore, we will analyze how you can enter a blog about the program.
1. Coordinate the integration of the blog into the educational process with the school management
This is the first thing to do. Also, the management should give clear recommendations on content: Prohibit or allow the use of photos of students, and schools in posts, regulate the use of this or that type of content, etc.
Do not be surprised if the administration requires you to give written permission from your parents for their children to participate in blogging. This step will help to avoid misunderstandings and many controversial issues in the future.
2. Clearly define the topics you will cover on the blog
You can choose any topic: your subject, determine the areas of interest of students in your class, can use the blog to deepen the study of the subject - post interesting tasks, assignments, additional resources, and training videos.
If you start blogging in your subject, it shouldn't just be a repeat of the school curriculum. This is a great opportunity to interest students, show them the importance, and perspectives of discipline, and engage and arouse interest.
3. Get Students Interested in Blogging
Interest and involvement can only be shown by direct participants in the process, and not outside observers. If you just post posts and students read them, then at first they will be interested, but over time, the number of comments will decrease, and the blog will no longer be useful.
Give students the opportunity to post themselves. For example, to cover events in a classroom or school, older children can already post-national and global news. You can also provide them with the StuDocu study materials platform where they might have a unique chance to share their knowledge with each other.
At the same time, it is extremely important that the children themselves choose what they will write about, and express their point of view on these events. Invite other students to comment on the posts of their classmates, and challenge them to a discussion, but keep the situation under control.
4. Regularity and consistency
You must ensure that the blog posts are regularly updated. This takes a lot of time and effort, so divide these responsibilities between students equally. It is extremely wrong to appoint permanent editors and writers for a blog.
Every child should participate in the process. You can set the order of writing posts and accurately announce in class when someone posts their material.
This will enable the blogger to prepare, and make their article interesting and more visually appealing (we will talk about tools for leading a god and creating attractive content below).
5. Create a blog as a research project
Another great way to integrate a blog into the learning process. This is a collective class effort that requires everyone to work and be involved. Choose a topic for research and invite students to share roles among themselves - someone writes the text, and someone selects videos, and photos, and processes them.
You must build the backbone of the project and make sure that each student tries himself in each role. For example, today he writes a text, and tomorrow he works with a photo.
Such blogs are not even a double, but a triple benefit:
- You teach children to conduct research, search for information on the Internet, compare facts, develop an idea, correctly build a sequence of work, draw up results;
- You teach children to work in a team, which is extremely important for their further socialization, work in a team, the formation of an understanding of their roles and tasks;
- You create a powerful portfolio for children and form skills that will always be useful in the future life.
Multimedia research projects in the form of blogs are gaining popularity in educational institutions every year. A teacher who is involved in his profession can use this powerful tool with great success.
6. Get meaningful feedback
If you want to improve and develop your blog in the right direction, you need feedback from your readers. It must necessarily be children from your and other classes or groups. You can also get in touch with parents who will appreciate your work and talk about their impressions and attitudes towards children's authorship.
It is equally important for you to get in touch with other educators and bloggers who run their educational pages. You can share experiences, adopting each other's most successful, successful, and effective techniques.
7. Use different content on your blog
A blog is not only about texts and tasks. This is a complete tool. Use a photo that you select from free stocks. Be sure to take care not to infringe copyright.
Use video. In the classroom, many teachers show short videos to children for better perception and understanding of the topic. For a blog to be accessible and easy to understand, you must do the same in it.
If there is not enough time in the lesson to watch the video, tell the children to post it to God. An interesting additional lesson at home will help you quickly and deeply understand the topic and subject.
How to Organize Blogging: Tips for Teachers
The first thing a teacher needs to understand is that blogging takes time, attention, and solid planning. Without this, even the most wonderful idea, a project that is planned to be implemented in this form, is doomed to failure.
Even if the page is maintained by students, the teacher is their coordinator, so you need to approach the creation of a blog thoroughly.
Tip 1: Read Other Bloggers
To understand which blog is developing successfully, and what structure, regularity, size of posts, and content is most suitable for achieving your goals, you need to see examples in front of you.
The “pioneers” have already paved this path by trial and error, so it makes no sense to follow it blindly, stuffing your own bumps and wasting time on them.
Tip 2: Avoid Plagiarism
Let's talk about plagiarism. This is unacceptable both for the teachers themselves and for the students. Check how the child used the information in their post.
He read it, comprehended it, and passed it on in his own words or simply copied it from the source. The second option is not acceptable, and students need to be reminded of this and remembered for themselves.
Tip 3: choose the right platform
There are many platforms on the Internet that allow you to create a full-fledged blog. You need to choose them according to the goals of the page and functionality.
If you are planning a temporary page that will be dedicated to organizing a separate event, for example, organizing a prom, then you can choose a service with a minimal set of the simplest tools.
If your blog is about a classroom where children will study for many years, where research will take place, interesting bright events will be covered, and even after graduation, classmates will be able to share their achievements, and stories to keep in touch, then you need to choose a platform that allows you to create such great products.
Be sure to consider whether blogging will be your occupation, and the children will only be able to comment on posts, or it will be a collaboration. There are excellent platforms that allow several authors to work on a blog at the same time, to conduct teamwork.
Tip 4: Spend time in class blogging
In order for a blog to become a full-fledged element of the educational mechanism, it is necessary to pay attention to it in the lessons.
This way, children will feel that their work on the page is important and that this is also learning, and not just optional learning after class. In this way, the teacher can engage students in the process and show the value of new skills.
Tip 5: Publicity is part of the process
To add value to your and the overall work on your blog, make it public. It is necessary to enlist the support of parents and administration and integrate the blog into popular social networks.
An increase in readership will inspire you and your co-authors among children to work harder, and search for interesting topics, subjects for research, and content.
Still not sure if you should start a blog? We will give some more statistics: 43% of people admit that they view blog posts, that is, almost half of active Internet users read blogs and actively follow the events in them.
This means that you have every chance to make your page popular, its authors are experienced writers and researchers, and these are very important skills in the modern era of accessible information.
An educational blog is both a learning tool and an additional motivation and opportunity for students to discover their talents. Try it and see how fun, educational and useful it is.
BIO:
Stacey Wonder is a content marketer who enjoys sharing best practices for self-development and careers with others. In her free time, Stacey is fond of contemporary dance and classic French movies. You may feel free to reach out to her at GuestpostingNinja@gmail.com or for collaboration suggestions.
