Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98.
I chose this article because of recent classroom discussions regarding weblogs. This article explores the roles of weblogs in classroom literacy. According to the article weblogs are like personal journals or diaries and is an online venue for self expression and creativity. This in turn enhances storytelling and literacy. According to studies adolescents make up a large portion of the blogging community, almost 51.5% of blogs are developed and maintained by students ages 13-19. With blogging so popular amongst youth, the author felt as though it was hard to ignore utilizing technology into literacy and wanted to study the effects of blogging to enhance learning. This article identifies the importance of blogging and feels as though technology integration can promote literacy through storytelling, allows collaborative learning, and provides anytime-anywhere access.
The author describes the importance of teaching literacy to children and adolescent development through digital fluency, a way people become comfortable using technology as their natural language. Researchers feel as though technology literacy will be another prerequisite for lifelong learning and employment. This article also discusses the art of storytelling to increase literacy stating “using the Internet to communicate allows an author to use verbal literacy while extending digital fluency” Lastly, this article explores various ways that blogs can be used for both individuals and groups and in different classroom settings such Buckman Arts Magnet Elementary School in Portland, Oregon uses blogs to create a portal for all classrooms. The blog links among each teacher, showcasing photographs, student artwork, and classroom news.
Overall, this research article did a great job of promoting the utilization of blogging within the classroom to increase literacy skills. I feel as though blogging can be effective if monitored properly and students were taught cyber etiquette.
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Interesting article - put it on my "to read" list. I found the figure of 51% quite amazing in terms of use for young teens. Will be interested to see how this idea is researched in the future.
ReplyDeleteLike Dr. S, I was surprised at how high the percentage was of 13-19 year-old bloggers in relation to the rest of bloggers. It makes me feel old that I just figured out what blogging even was this semester! I think with numbers like that, it's hard to deny that there wouldn't be benefits from utliizing blogging with that age demographic. Good find Anita!
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