After reading the section on blogging in the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom by Will Richardson last night, I have to admit I was left even more puzzled with the idea of using a blog for classroom/school purposes. Some of the ideas the book suggests are to use blogs as a place for school information, specific class information, or posting morning announcements, which are all wonderful ideas. However, with the emergence of learning management systems such as Edmoto or Schoology, I wonder how this will affect the use of blogging?!
The district where I teach currently uses an LMS called Schoology, and this upcoming school year is asking ALL teachers to run their classes through their classes Schoology webpage. This includes a daily agenda, course content such as notes and videos, giving quizzes and tests, as well as posting school-wide information. The thought process behind this is to provide parents with a "one stop shop" experience. Rather than have to visit several different teacher sites, a parent will be able to go to Schoology and view their childs' homework, grades, and any announcements all in one place. Yes, they have to click on the different class pages, but all within one website. We are a busy society, sure there are RSS feeds, but I do appreciate the effort the school is putting in to help parents get the information they need quickly and concisely.
I am certainly not against teachers and schools using blogs. As I have said before, I am sure there are really well done blogs out there that will put my argument to shame. However, with the emergence of Schoology and other programs, I can't help but wonder what the future of educational blogging looks like!?!?
What are YOUR thoughts?
I think it comes down to leadership by the administration to make sure programs like Schoololgy work. If ALL the staff consistently uses a school-wide program then parents and students will be trained to go there for all school related information. The one-stop shop nature is appealing for a variety of reasons, but ALL the staff needs to be on board, and likely the only way to accomplish this is serious nudging from admins. If a school has invested in a LMS then it should be used instead of individual blogs to push out class info, etc. But blogs can also be created and maintained by students as part of a classroom assignment/project, possibly the blogs could be created with Schoololgy?
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