In the video, shared by Shona Chornenki, students explained why they enjoy blogs. Blogging is facilitating the differentiation of instruction. The Internet makes it easy for teachers to meet the diverse needs of their students. Differentiation is made possible via free Internet resources. McCarthy (2015) states that meeting the needs of each student is easier now than ever before: “We truly are in a brave new world -- the good kind -- where differentiation opportunities evolve due to the variety of social media tools available. No longer are students and teachers limited to resources purchased for the classroom.” By differentiating instruction, according to students’ readiness, learning preferences, and interests, teachers can increase engagement and success (McCarthy, 2015). In his article about creating independent learners, Richardson (2012) believes that personalizing learning will result in creating successful, lifelong learners. Teachers have all the tools they need to personalize the material to their students via Web 2.0 tools. Ricardson (2012) states, “by embedding such social web tools as blogs and social bookmarks into the learning culture, both students and teachers can stay organized and focused.” Blogging is an excellent way to differentiate instruction since it enables students to create posts covering a multitude of different topic and in different ways. Moreover, the collaborative aspect of posting blogs and responses enables students to interact with individuals outside their school’s walls, extending their community.
50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media. (2015, January 16). Retrieved March 29, 2015 from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-social-media-tools-john-mccarthy.
Preparing Students to Learn Without Us. (2011, January 1). Retrieved March 29, 2015, fromhttp://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb12/vol69/num05/Preparing-Students-to-Learn-Without-Us.aspx
Smith, Grace E. & Throne, S. (2009). Differentiating instruction with technology in Middle school classroom. 29-39.
The Case for Cultivating Cultural Awareness. (2011, October 26). Retrieved March 29, 2015, fromhttp://plpnetwork.com/2011/10/26/the-case-for-cultivating-cultural-awareness/
Why Students Need Global Awareness and appreciation for other cultures. (2012, September 25). Retrieved March 28, 2015 from http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/sep/25/students-global-awareness-other-cultures.
50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media. (2015, January 16). Retrieved March 29, 2015 from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-social-media-tools-john-mccarthy.
Preparing Students to Learn Without Us. (2011, January 1). Retrieved March 29, 2015, fromhttp://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb12/vol69/num05/Preparing-Students-to-Learn-Without-Us.aspx
Smith, Grace E. & Throne, S. (2009). Differentiating instruction with technology in Middle school classroom. 29-39.
The Case for Cultivating Cultural Awareness. (2011, October 26). Retrieved March 29, 2015, fromhttp://plpnetwork.com/2011/10/26/the-case-for-cultivating-cultural-awareness/
Why Students Need Global Awareness and appreciation for other cultures. (2012, September 25). Retrieved March 28, 2015 from http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/sep/25/students-global-awareness-other-cultures.
The Web enables teachers to extend the walls of their classroom so that students can communicate with far away people and can explore distant sites. Even if students never get a chance to leave their hometown, they can explore other cultures and interact with foreign people. As educators, it is our job to expand the students’ horizons. We can use the web to “develop an awareness of and desire to learn more about people from around world” (Hilt, 2011). One of the best things we can teach our twenty-first century students in a globally connected world is to appreciate cultural differences. Global awareness is essential to our students’ education and professional life. In his essay on creating global awareness in student, Picardo (2012) states that exposing students to other cultures will make them more well rounded, understanding, and informed. It helps them develop different perspectives and develop other skills transferable to their adult lives. Hilt (2011) charges teachers to accept their role as global ambassadors, “We now have an enormous responsibility to ensure that our students develop cultural awareness and are engaged in acts of citizenship, not only within our schools and surrounding areas, but as active members of the global community.”
Modern technology eases the task of exposing students to other cultures. Picardo (2012) states that through social media and video conferencing, students can have authentic cultural experiences with relative ease: “Class Twitter accounts link students in real time across the face of the planet with projects devised around common academic subjects and cross-cultural understanding. Skype allows us to converse face-to-face with people from other countries, allowing us to knock down classroom walls and hear it direct from the source. Google Maps lets our pupils take a walk down the streets of every major town and city in the world, allowing them to sight-see and get a sense of other cultures from the comfort of their own classroom. And blogs provide geographically distant schools with the means to partner together so that their pupils can interact in a safe virtual environment, contributing a valuable international dimension to peer assessment” (Picardo, 2012).
In his statement, Picardo addresses a few of the ways teachers can easily have their students experience other people and places. Not only can students observe and explore other culture, but they can write and read about them via blogs. Students can write about their own cultural practices and experiences. By writing about their own culture, students can develop pride in their heritage and possibly learn from comments other people post regarding their blog. Teachers can help students locate other students’ blogs from around the world, where they can read and comment about another student’s cultural practices and traditions. Blogs have more uses than just reading and writing about culture because it is just a method of connecting people interested in similar topics. Schools can connect to the local community through blogs. Our school and teachers create a window into the activities in the classroom and throughout the school via blogs. Blogs are used across the curriculum. Foreign language teachers use blogs to have students practice writing in the target language. Science teachers use blogs for students writing about their labs and experiments. Language Arts teachers use blogs as a way for students to write about the literature they are reading.
Modern technology eases the task of exposing students to other cultures. Picardo (2012) states that through social media and video conferencing, students can have authentic cultural experiences with relative ease: “Class Twitter accounts link students in real time across the face of the planet with projects devised around common academic subjects and cross-cultural understanding. Skype allows us to converse face-to-face with people from other countries, allowing us to knock down classroom walls and hear it direct from the source. Google Maps lets our pupils take a walk down the streets of every major town and city in the world, allowing them to sight-see and get a sense of other cultures from the comfort of their own classroom. And blogs provide geographically distant schools with the means to partner together so that their pupils can interact in a safe virtual environment, contributing a valuable international dimension to peer assessment” (Picardo, 2012).
In his statement, Picardo addresses a few of the ways teachers can easily have their students experience other people and places. Not only can students observe and explore other culture, but they can write and read about them via blogs. Students can write about their own cultural practices and experiences. By writing about their own culture, students can develop pride in their heritage and possibly learn from comments other people post regarding their blog. Teachers can help students locate other students’ blogs from around the world, where they can read and comment about another student’s cultural practices and traditions. Blogs have more uses than just reading and writing about culture because it is just a method of connecting people interested in similar topics. Schools can connect to the local community through blogs. Our school and teachers create a window into the activities in the classroom and throughout the school via blogs. Blogs are used across the curriculum. Foreign language teachers use blogs to have students practice writing in the target language. Science teachers use blogs for students writing about their labs and experiments. Language Arts teachers use blogs as a way for students to write about the literature they are reading.