Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Why the Blog Assignment was Stupid and how to fix It
Blogging was meant to engage the students and allow them to reflect on what they've learned in class but Blogger just turned into another thing that stressed out seniors that was pushed until the last minute. Though you weren't supposed to procrastinate blogging, it was very time consuming and hard to find out what you wanted to write about. Besides that, it was easy to forget about because, as the senior project was, it was announced at the beginning of the year and rarely brought up again until they were due. I'm a person who doesn't mind writing and people seeing my writing when I have something to write about, and coming over the obstacle of writers block is hard enough, but imagine the kids who don't like writing and who are worried about other kids criticism about their work, it must be almost impossible to find the will power to write. I think a way in the future to make this work better and to more easily prevent people not turning in blogs or waiting until the last minute to do them is to give ideas about what to blog about every once in a while and to remind the students more often about when they're due. I would also have found maybe a poster showing who has done how many blogs posted in the class on the wall to be more helpful because it's shown that students strive in a competitive environment, and also because no one wants to be the only one on the bottom.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that blogging was sometimes a pain, but I do think it is somewhat beneficial. I think blogging gives students who may be shy a chance to start a discussion or voice his or her opinions. Even for those that are not shy, blogging gives students a chance to talk through their thoughts and hear from his or her peers. Maybe to solve the issue of procrastination, we should be required to blog once a week and be given a letter grade for the blog that can instantly be seen on SIS. That way, we can see how the blog assignment plays a part in our overall grade right away, rather than at the end of the semester. I like your idea of a poster and having suggestions. Maybe a good idea is to have a list of questions that may spark ideas. Although I totally see where you are coming from, I think blogging is still a good way to learn from each other.
ReplyDeleteI agree with MJ in some aspects. I think it has good intentions, but like a lot of things in school, it's just not carried out very well. Yes we are seniors and yes we should have our shit together, but blogging no matter what is going to be the last thing on any seniors mind. I think in order for this to work in the future, there needs to be more specific instructions, more specific guidelines, and more specific deadlines. Seniors have a lot going on in theirs lives and the blogging thing gets pretty irritating sometimes because you can fall behind pretty quick. Also, the senior project blogs in my mind is ridiculous for every student. We are already taking notes and it is already distracting enough to have to jot down notes, instead of being able to actually listen and understand. This is another thing that we could easily go without, without it affecting anyone. Also, the teachers are not that consistent with following each other and sticking to it. It's just kind of irritating to see two classes that are supposed to be the same, not actually line up with activities and grading.
ReplyDeleteI like your argument MJ, and I find it important that you have come up with a solution to help fix it. We should have communicated as a class to work on this instead of a blog post per video.
ReplyDelete