A blog is a personal collection of various thoughts, opinions, reflections, or discussions about pretty much anything. It is posted on the internet for anyone surfing the net to come upon. For some users blogs represent a sort of diary or update of current events in their life. While for others their blogs may have a specific objective to cover a certain topic or appeal to a specific genre. Blogs may contain pictures or links to other blogs or material the author may find useful or interesting. Here is an example of my blog; Amy’s Interactive Websites that I use to explore and display interactive websites that may be useful in a secondary level classroom.
In a Social Studies 20 class as part of a unit of analyzing Worlds Systems, specifically In Unit 5 the objectives on Governance and Systems I would employ the use of a blog. With the current political issues occurring both here and in the United States I would have students analyze the political elections.
The students would create a blog and use their blog to report on their knowledge of the political parties, their agendas, relevance to the students’ life, and their opinions. I would manage it by reviewing guidelines of what is expected with the students before they begin, and viewing the blogs to ensure they are on task. Students would be expected to complete 3-5 blogs throughout the course of a few weeks. Each student would be required to present one blog of their choice to the class, and further elaborate on it.
I think the students would benefit as they would be able to analyze relevant current issues and make connections to themselves and their learning through it. A blog would enhance this activity by incorporating some fun and interesting technology skills. It would also allow them to critically think, and present their findings in a relaxed manner that may increase their flow of ideas.
