Student Blogs: making the transition to the information age

In a previous post I discussed how we (as a society) are transitioning from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. This is beginning to become apparent in Australian public schools. Previously students would be directed by a teacher and approved text books as to what it was they needed to learn. The style of learning was rote learning. Students copied information from books or from a blackboard into their paper files using hand writing. These were hallmarks of learning in the industrial era.

We are currently transitioning to the information age. It's still not clear what the typical learning environment or school of the information age will look like, but we are already beginning to get some ideas. Certainly it will involve students using more of their own initiative to search for and select information from the plethora of sources offered by the internet. They will not just be able to copy verbatim from a book or the blackboard, but will have to critically evaluate the accuracy of information first. And when they record information, it won't just be ink on paper, but will be digital. This means that they will be able to use graphics, videos, and audio, as well as typed text to produce their own knowledge.

But where will they record this information?

I believe that student blogs will be one of the main repositories of student work and knowledge. Using blogs, students will be able to demonstrate to themselves and others how their learning has progressed and matured over time.

Blogs have many advantages to previous forms of student knowledge repositories (e.g.: the old lever arch file). Firstly they can easily be personalised (e.g.: the style and presentation of the blog can be customized to the student's personal preference). This is important because I believe that people need to feel a sense of ownership and take pride in their work.

One of the greatest advantages of blogs is that they are publicly available. This means that parents, teachers and friends can review student progress. Students can learn from one another by reading each other's blogs. And blogs can easily link to source information thereby providing a trail to the source of information. So blogs have many advantages and I'm now encouraging my students to start their own blogs and to record some of what they have learned and their assessments online on their blogs.

Here is a video explaining just what blogs are and how people can use them to communicate:



If you'd like to start your own blog you can go over to Blogger or Wordpress to start your own. Don't forget to include links to the blogs of your friends and classmates. In this way you'll create a community of bloggers who are sharing what they learn.