Exploring the Potential of Blogs in Effective Content Area Literacy Instruction

Incorporating Web 2.0 tools in teacher preparation programs has become an imperative for effectively preparing pre service and in service teachers for practice in today's digital world. The proliferation of a wide range of technological tools has made it possible for both teachers and students to collaborate on projects, share ideas and experiences and develop their analytical and critical literacy skills beyond the walls of the classroom.

This week I intend to help primary school student teachers develop greater familiarity with a few tools such as blogs, web quest, wikis etc and to explore the potential that these tools have in enhancing content area literacy at the elementary level. They have been participating in an online threaded discussion board, as seen in the link on the left

Today, they will be setting up their personal blogs and hopefully create their first post.

Web 2.0 Making its way into DTEEA

Teacher educators, teacher trainees as well as classroom teachers have demonstrated a keen interest in exploring the potential that blogging and the discussion board have in enhancing their pedagogical practices and student learning. This mounting interest in web 2.0 tools is imperative to teacher preparation programs such as ours at the Division of Teacher Education and successful classroom practice. Ultimately the goal is to equip both teachers and learners with the requisite skills needed for life in this ever changing digitized landscape.

Meanwhile some teacher educators are going the 'blended' way (incorporating both asynchronous and the traditional face to face teaching methodology). students in training are experimenting with the affordances provided by blogs to enhance their learners' traditional reading comprehension and writing skills and at the same time developing their digital literacy skills. The new literacies are gradually taking center stage at the Division of Teacher Education and in some of our primary and secondary schools.

Research Results

Well, the results are in and I obtained a creditably 80 for the dissertation that i carried out in the content area reading and writing methods course. I thought that was pretty ok. So this brings closure to the MA in New Literacies program. The skills and knowledge gained during these two years have been extremely beneficial to my practice.

The Wiki

Another Web 2.o tool that I am currently experimenting with. It is a useful tool tool that teacher educators can utilize particularly when students are working on group projects. Take a look.

Google Docs

A new way to share and collaborate on documents, presentations and spreadsheets. Go the Google doc way! Take a look

Teacher Education for the 21st Centruy

I must admit that the MA in New Literacies adequately prepared me for this Online Course that I am currently pursing designed for teacher educators from the Caribbean Latin and Central America. The course seeks to expose teacher educators to methodologies that put student teachers in charge of their learning with the use of new technologies. The ultimate goal I suppose is to initiate the paradigm shift in preparing teachers for practice in the 21st century and beyond.

It is a very short course - 11 weeks long which i am already finding so captivating.

It's OVER

Now that i have completed this acadmenic journey I am ever so grateful to all those who made the research a reality. To the research participants i owe a debt of gratitude.

The research was a major breakthrough for me as a new teacher educator. I did not realize that this undertaking was so engaging. I did learn quite a bit however as some of the findings have informed my pedagogical practices at the teachers' college where i currently lecture.

I think that students' participation in blogs and the discussion board was impressive. Their interactive and collaborative participation that took place over the semester-long course contributed to their reflexivity and their understanding of content area related concepts. Furthermore students built communities of practice as was evident in the nature of interaction, their interest and the knowledge and repertoire of instructional strategies that they learned and developed to enhance content area instruction at the secondary school.