Through research, I found that a blog can be created to inspire, educate, or connect to others. It can be defined as a type of website or weblog that can be used as an online diary or personal journal. Blogs can also be utilized to promote a product or business. Information is usually updated frequently, and the content is presented on the website by the newest content first. Older posts are archived and can be searched by topic. Most blogs consist of the creator's topic of choice, ideas, opinions, interpretations, and emotions. Readers embarked on the writers' journey to gain information, enhance knowledge, and see things from other perspectives.
Sites Explored
I visited several different website builders/platforms and played with the ones that were free to use. I explored Weebly.com, Edublogs.org, Wix.com, and Blogger.com. The commonalities shared were that they all offered an archive system and tutorial to assist in setting up a blog, some way to design and customize the layout and format of the blog site. videos, links, and images can be inserted. Three of the four websites were geared toward generating income. As I played with the sites, some were a little more complex to use and explore than others, but it was fun exploring them. All the sites played with had the capabilities of being linked to some form of social media platform. Visitors can leave comments. The greater the traffic/views, and insertion of ads, the greater the possibility of generating income. Three of the four blog sites are shown below, I decided to utilize blogger.com for the purposes of this assignment, due to user-friendliness, simplistic features and directly being able to link to my LEO Portal.
Weebly.com: While play-testing this site I found that though flexible for use, it seemed more geared toward generating traffic and income. it contains a lot of useful apps and graphics. this site could be utilized for student learning or maybe even for educator experiences and sharing lessons.
Blogs versus Other Technologies
Whereas blogs can be used as an online diary where the blogger is the only speaker and can write in an informal or conversational style. Other technologies focus on different modalities of presentation, collaboration, and communication with the audience. Blogs differ from other forms of technology such as glogs, vlogs, webpages, and discussion boards, in the way that the media is formatted and presented. A glog is a 2.0 platform that allows users to upload videos, photos, audio, text, and other types of media to create an online poster that is unique to the creator. Glogs can be multi-edited, shared, and published. Students can comment and provide feedback to other students. Vlogs are also known as video logs or video blogs, most or all the content is video. Vlogs are usually personal videos that include extra details about the individual person's life or established themes. The videographer is also the narrator. comments can be managed by the creator. A webpage is a single-page document written in HTML. that may contain text, graphics, hyperlinks to other websites, videos, and pictures to help illustrate important topics. A webpage provides information to viewers. a comments section can be enabled on a web page. Discussion boards are also known as message boards are asynchronous, so the commenters do not need to be present at the time of discussion, they can always contribute later. discussion boards are multi-user and are presented in threads. Blogs like the technologies mentioned above can play an integral part in learning. They are merely different platforms that have the focus of communication in common, but in some of the technologies, there is only one voice that can be heard while in other forms there can be multiple voices heard.
How Blogs Support Learning
I am a self-contained teacher; I could use blogs in my classroom during any of the subjects that I currently teach to support learning. Reflecting on the SAMR model along with the TPACK Model to reflect on what I am teaching will help me think more strategically about the technology I am using in the classroom (in this case a blog). Blogs provide the affordance of uninterrupted communication. and promote in-depth thinking and learning. Sometimes when other students are sharing, the quieter ones will not share, so using a blog will ensure that everyone participates. That will allow for a check for understanding, which in turn leads me to find if a student is truly understanding the concept(s) being taught.
Integrating both the SAMR model and the TPACK Model into Instruction.
Enhancing Instruction utilizing the Substitution or Augmentation Level would consist of getting an assignment page from a textbook, turning it into a digital copy, and uploading it into google slides. Setting it as a background and inserting text boxes, then later, having students fill in the blanks in google classroom instead of filling in the blanks on paper/worksheet.
Substitution lesson example: The objective is for my students to label the different stages of the life cycle of a Butterfly. Instead of a paper-pencil activity, students would go to their google classroom fill in the blanks on an assignment in google classroom using google slides. For this lesson to move into Augmentation, I would embed videos into our classroom blog so that my students could watch to gain more information and insight about the life cycle of a butterfly and enhance their learning experience. I would embed a google form quiz link into our classroom blog page and students can access it from there. they fill in the google form quiz and then submit it to me. After they submit their assignment, they receive their grade (immediate feedback). they can then return to their classroom blogs and write a reflection of what they already knew about the assignment before watching the video, what type of new knowledge they gained after watching the video. If they didn't do as well as they had hoped, what is one thing they can do differently next time to improve the outcome. Their reflection could also include some questions that they may still have regarding the lesson or further inquiry into the concept. I learned how to create lessons such as this one in professional development when the pandemic first began. This lesson falls under Bloom's Revised Taxonomy of educational objectives, under the category of remembering, and Vygotsky's Social development theory due to (technology use and communication) through the blog. Under the TPACK model, this lesson would fall under Technological Content Knowledge. The blog would support the communication of reading, writing, communication, and thinking standards
Transforming Instruction Utilizing the Modification or Redefinition Level would consist of having students write an essay about a specific topic on Google docs. A recording will be played in front of their peers and administration.
Modification lesson example: The objective is for my students to write an essay about the process of sedimentary formation on Google docs., Instead of a paper-pencil activity. Students would go to their google classroom to fill in a template on google docs. for their essay located in google classroom. Later they would create a recording that will be played for their peers and administration. For this lesson to move into the Redefinition level, I would have the students work in groups answering essential questions that pertained to the formation of sedimentary rocks. Then groups can choose a different stage of the process of sedimentary rock formation and personify the sedimentary rock while it is going through the process. I would give students a recording device and students would record a video of each other in character as to why they are important for the formation of sedimentary rock formation. Finally, students can upload the videos into our classroom blog where I will enable comments and students can watch each other's videos on their own time and leave comments. I learned how to create lessons such as this one on my own through the years and also through this course. This lesson falls under Blooms Revised Taxonomy of educational objectives, under the category of Creating and Piagets' Constructivism Theory (knowledge is constructed) and Pask's Conversation Theory of communication (interactions lead to knowing). Under the TPACK model, this lesson would fall under Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. The blog would support the communication of reading, writing, communication and thinking standards.
