Concerned Parent

I have many concerns about web 2.o technologies being incorporated into the classroom. One of my biggest concerns is blogs. I think it will be very hard for teachers to monitor the comments made from student to student. If bullying is happening is the teacher going to catch it soon enough. I read an article by Jon Swartz in USA Today called "Schoolyard Bullies Get Nastier Online." It said that children from the ages of 9-14 are the most affected by bullying. The damages it causes could be horrible to the students. Is this technology worth the ramifications it might have on our students in the long run?

Here are some questions I have:

If my child posts their work or comments online will everyone be able to reply back?

Will they be able to get any information on my child?

If a student makes inappropriate comments on their blog or another students blog how will they be punished?

Wiki

Sorry for such a late post. I am still struggling with creating my own wikipedia. I keep reading through the directions. I don't think I am publishing it, but I am not sure how.

On the other hand, I am completely blown away by how cool wikis are. They will be an amazing tool to utilize in the classroom. The kids will think they are so cool. I am excited to implement them into the classroom.

I set up my wiki at wikispaces-

http://masonmiddleschoolart.wikispaces.com/

I think that blogs can be a great tool for students to use. I think that in order for it to be "technology with a change" certain teaching strategies must be used. I think that the the constructivist inquiry based approach needs to be taken by the teacher. These methods believe that learning is an active process. Blogs allow students to interact with content. Students are able to respond and communicate with their peers. This keeps students active at all times during the lesson.

It would be hard to use "sage on the stage" or deductive. I often use both of these in my classroom. I do demonstrations for students for almost every project. In these parts of my lessons I am the one giving instruction and the students are watching. However, I think that by using all of the different strategies my lessons are more effective.

I would love to use blogs in my classroom to have students reflect on their own artwork, and their peers. It would be a great way for them to receive feedback. I think it would be great if they were put in groups and had to comment on their groups artwork after a project was complete. I would also like the community, parents, and other staff members to be able to comment on the student artwork. The students would feel very special to have people taking the time to comment on their artwork. We do a lot of written reflections on artwork and I think it would be wonderful place to write these. I would really like to purchase EdVoiceThread next year and become part of student groups all over the world. There students from all over can post on each others blogs.

Students could create a wiki to define art terms. They could be placed in groups and they have to define each of the terms. They would have to work together to share ideas, research on the internet, and agree on the idea they put down. This extra research might be more beneficial then me reciting definitions in front of the class. My only concern is how I will make sure everyone is involved. Maybe each student would be responsible for certain vocabulary words. Then we could get together as a class and discuss their findings.