Teaching, then, whether in graduate schools or kindergartens – in elite universities or slum schools – binds all of us together. In teaching we display our views of knowledge and learning, we advertise our ideas, how we reason, and how we struggle with moral choices whether we intend to or not. To teach is to enlist in a technical, morally based vocation…
Now change that to:
Blogging, then, whether in graduate schools or kindergartens – in elite universities or slum schools – binds all of us together. In blogging we display our views of knowledge and learning, we advertise our ideas, how we reason, and how we struggle with moral choices whether we intend to or not. To blog is to enlist in a technical, morally based vocation…
Edubloggers, do you see blogging as an extension of your teaching? If not, should you?
On the flip side, do you see teaching as an extension of your blogging?
Image credit: In order to exist online, we must write ourselves into being
[Hat tip to Larry Ferlazzo]
Hi Scott,
Funny that I was just thinking how any form of writing for a shared audience – online or off – is a kind of teaching. I don’t know if I have taught anyone anything by writing, but I have sure learned a lot by reading.
Happy new year. Keep blogging/teaching all of us!
Doug
Doug, I can say with an absolute certainty that tens of thousands of people have learned boatloads from your writing. Thanks for the kind words; you keep up the blogging/teaching too!
Blogging is teaching without the restraints of curriculum and administration. Blogging is teaching to people who are there by choice rather than by mandate. Blogging is teaching where the audience teaches back through comments and ideas of their own. Blogging is teaching about something that you are interested in. Blogging is teaching and teaching is blogging. They are the coincidence of oppoisties (Bruno).
I think blogging can be used in many areas of education. So far I haven’t used blogging in my teaching but I have severals plan on how I will do that the next semester.
At the moment I mainly use blogging to share my ideas with fellow teachers. Making them aware of interesting new technologies.
But this upcoming semester I will use blogging to discuss with students. FX ethics – why are computer games, movies etc rated the way they are. What risks will be taken when disregarding the rating.
Book reports – What to read? But not only in writing but by using fx. digital stories, audioslides etc.
Opening up for discussions.
I see blogging as a great way of sharing knowledge and working things out together.
What a great way for teachers to think about how and why they should blog and/or generally embrace technology and Web 2.0 social media!
My blogging and my teaching go hand in hand. I’m better in the classroom because I blog, and I share teaching successes and failures on the blog to help others learn from my experience. Also, blogging is learning. It’s a great way to reach out to other educators for help and advice.
Great discussion. I’ve got two points to contribute. First, most writing is, in itself, an act of learning. The research paper, for instance, is an act of learning via synthesis. We compile research, write about how other research relates, thereby creating new information for others to access. Second, technology amplifies almost all other educational strategies. Whether its cooperative learning, reflection, prediction, summation, etc., student-use of digital-age tools amplifies learning.
I do not see blogging and writing as teaching. They are argument making, they are idea sharing, but they are too unidirectional to be considered teaching. If blogging is teaching, it is the equivalent to lecture. Sure the professor can interact with students and occasionally does, but their is a clear leader on any individual blog post.
@Brad….technology also amplifies the bad things of education – overstuffed curriculum, point hoarding, student as empty vessel, etc.
As a keen edublogger, I would like to weigh in here.
I started my blog with the intention of creating a personal learning network, a platform for ideas about education (not just my own) and a resource depot for teachers and students alike. I intend to have my blogging go hand in hand with my teaching, and, more than that, I intend to use it as a tool for teaching.
I disagree with Mr Kruse above – a blog need not be a didactic, virtual lecture theatre. The blog is highly conducive to socratic discussions (like the one we’re having now) and the blogger need merely moderate and lead the discussion, not dominate it.
I can think of a lot of other words that might also fit in place of Teaching or Blogging and still make sense. None of which fit better than the word: dialogue.
Teachers and bloggers both crave an audience. We want to be heard, and dare I say, admired. I do agree with one of the first comments that the big difference is the audience. Blog readers want to be there, participating and learning. My 9th grade students in the brick and mortar classroom, yeah, not so much.
I perceive blogging as a form of collaborative professional development. Sometimes I learn; sometimes I teach. Always I think, grow, and appreciate the exchange of ideas, reactions, and perceptions.
New to blogging (as of 12/28/2010), I am so excited about what this classroom “store front” provides my students in a town of less than 700. Blogging allows them to share their learning experiences with the world. They may even learn to enjoy writing. They were so excited to learn that their new digital wall had visitors from all over the world! Educators, who just like me are looking for ways to bring down the four walls of their classroom, and bring the world to their students. Blogging is definitely an extension of my teaching, and I feel I will be a better teacher for it! Please stop by our blog (http://jimthorpevft.edublogs.org/) and encourage my students to enter the blogosphere! They will start their first blogs later this week. Thank you all who’ve brightened the blogging path before me!