My initial feeling towards blogging was that it would be inappropriate because:
1. Not every student has access to a computer outside the classroom
2. Students may not be reading yet
3. Students do not know how to use a keyboard and mouse
4. Students will not have proper netiquette
I realized after reading articles about blogging in Kindergarten and watching my own students on the computer that my thoughts were really assumptions. All of the things I believed these students couldn't do because of their age aren't always true when you TEACH them the proper way of completing tasks and using software. I was amazed at how well my students knew how to use the computer and mouse when doing activities on the computer. I think that blogging can be done as long as expectations and modeling are done for the students and they understand the purpose of why they are blogging. I would love to do a Kindergarten blog sometime in the near future. I do believe that it can be somewhat time consuming, so a person with a busy life (like me) might not be able to put as much effort and time into maintaining a blog and that's why when I start one I want to be able to make sure I am able to be consistent with my students, families, and other audience that use the blog.
These are the articles I found that talked about the usability of blogging in Kindergarten and how a teacher can go about using a blog in the classroom.
http://teach.com/education-technology/social-media-and-blogging-in-kindergarten
http://mattbgomez.com/blogging-in-kindergarten/
http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/328-blogging-in-kindergarten
I hope you're able to take as much from these articles as I was!
I try hard not to underestimate Kindergartners. Kindergarten used to be the roughest hour of my week when I first started at my school. The model set by my predecessor was that the students would draw a picture about something on paper and then come to the lab and attempt to recreate that picture in KidPix. The students were only allowed to use the pencil tool and they were only allowed to use the medium thickness. I tried asking the Kindergarten teachers why... as they sat finishing drawings for students. And they said "Otherwise, it won't look good."
ReplyDeleteI was so flabbergasted that they were focused on the product, not the process. There are a million supporting pages in literature and on the web that say that is backwards. I very carefully started weaning them away from this method. The kindergartners now use the time in lab to "research" the alphabet and things that start with the letter and then create pages of an alphabet book for their younger siblings or cousins. My favorite drawings are not always the best executed, but the best explained. One little boy was not a fan of drawing in any form. He finally got to z and discarded the idea of drawing a zoo or a zebra. He put a plain gray rectangle on the page, looked up at me and said, "It's zinc, Mrs. Krage."
I do know that Kindergarten students are underestimated as to what they are capable of accomplishing. I use to be one of those people, but each year I am amazed at how much these young students know and understand, especially when it comes to technology. My coworkers and I were actually having a discussion about the expectations of the students being a little developmentally inappropriate and how can we expect them to sit for periods of time without being antsy? The children are more aware of apps and tools that can be used for fun, but not realizing they're actually educational too. I've heard of Kidpix before, but our school has limited access to iPads and they usually are used with the older students (which i don't agree with). I wish that more technology was given to the early childhood grades in my district, since they will be expected to use different forms of technology as they get older and with the new PARCC assessments.
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