BP3_2009121_EduUses4Blogs

I have never used a blog before and what I understood about them is that they are a platform for person socialization. As an older individual I am a foreigner to the 2.0 communities and do not have the same needs for that type personal of social environment. My question was as I approached this topic was, how in the world could this platform be used in a formal education situation? As my research into the topic progressed the window started to open. I soon discovered that there are teachers who are successfully using blogs in their classrooms. For example there was a science teacher Mr. K. who used blogs to connect his students with the material, himself and his students. This discourse allowed his students to venture outside of the pages of a book and enter into discussions and questioning that would be limited to classroom, time, and peer pressure. Here they could ask questions and through these questions he could see the interests and problems his students were having with the materials and also expand the information that he could cover. He could address his class and answer questions. It appeared that this was an add-on to his normal teaching activities and that the blogging did not interrupt his normal mode of operations. (Luehmann, Apri, MacBride, Robyn (2009).
One thing that I have noticed is that most articles that deal with blogging were tied to reading and writing literacy. Even in the article that I cited above was in some parts tied back to literacy. The ?core? courses are the ones being targeted for implementation of new ideas and research. The obsession of education in the USA with standardized tests and the narrowing of curriculum to reading, writing and arithmetic. Other research that I have done for my AR project has revealed that this narrowing is detrimental to the students learning. The countries that are high on the educational scale have broadened their curriculum base, but I am off the topic of blogs in education.
How can this be translated into something that I can use in the art classroom? I did find some articles about blogs and art history but once again they were tied back to reading and writing literacy. Then I found an article that gave me hope. In the article Creating and Consuming Web 2.0 in Art Education they gave possible uses for YouTube, delicious, flickr, blogs, podcasts, and wiki. (Buffington, Melanie L. 2008). It gave me the idea that I could use blogs in teaching visual literacy and the critique aspect of my teaching units. I could place works of art in my blog the students to be evaluated a piece of work according to the elements and principles of design. There also are the benefits of the student placing their artwork into their blog to share, to be critique and to be graded by peers and instructor. I think this has real possibilities.

Luehmann, Apri, MacBride, Robyn (2009). Classroom blogging in the service of student-centered pedagogy: Two high school teachers' use of blogs.. THEN: Technology, Humanities, Education & Narrative, Issue 6, p5-36. Retrieved November 26, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=9&sid=1f88640e-0b66-49fe-bce9-5af7bc6bd331%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=41774989

Buffington, Melanie L. (2008). Creating and consuming web 2.0 in art education. Computers in the Schools, Vol. 25, 303-312. Abstract retrieved November 26, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=105&sid=1f88640e-0b66-49fe-bce9-5af7bc6bd331%40sessionmgr113.