Convincing Administrators: Easier Said Than Done

Luckily, the school in which I teach is very much in support of cutting edge technology and programing. Our library media specialist is always on the lookout for grants to participate in or programs to learn about. I have mentioned before that I am in such a grant program. The program’s number one goal is to educate teachers to keep up to date with current trends in technology.

I don’t know what the most exemplary Web 2.0 tool is to support student learning, but I certainly have my favorite. I thoroughly enjoy blogs. In English class writing is a skill that is held in the utmost importance.  Students are also required to read and analyze texts. If students had the privilege and responsibility to write their own blogs about the things they are reading, they would take it seriously. 

I am lucky enough to have a computer lab in my classroom. I often have students use computers to create works. They like that a great deal, but when they have an audience for their creations, the atmosphere changes. Some students are shy about their work, and really benefit from the constructive criticism and the ideas of their classmates. Others are proud of their work and offer amazing help to others. In the end the students trust what their classmates tell them and their work is better for it. If my students could use blogs, their work would have a legitimate audience and I know they would be very careful to put the best work out there that they are capable of producing.

I wouldn’t have to ask my school for much to get this going. As I said earlier, I have a computer lab, and that lab of course is hooked up to the internet. I would have to ask my school to reword their internet policy which, as of now, prohibits blogging, and ask our technology coordinator to unblock at least one of the blogging sites.

To convince the administration that blogging can be a valuable educational activity, I would explain that audience makes a big difference in how people write. I would also try to find some examples of teachers from other schools that have used blogging successfully and explain the benefits of the activity include the fact that students collaborate in a way that isn’t possibly by any other means.