Technology in the Classroom: Blogs

 

Scrabble tiles spelling "blog"

What is Educational Blogging

In my Educational Technology class, we've had to create several blogs about what we are passionate about in the classroom.  These educational blogs allow teachers to express their opinions and beliefs about teaching and its culture and act as a platform to do so.  This soapbox, so to speak, invites discussions and analysis from both peers and students alike.  In addition to just sharing opinions, a piece from Edutopia recommends that teachers share their resources for other educators to use.  At the end of the day, educational blogging is about sharing your ideas and practices in relation to the classroom with other teachers, students, parents, and administrators.

What I Have Learned From Peers

A student sketching

Through my Educational Technology class, I have been exposed to ideas and topics from other students that I had previously yet to consider.  For instance, my classmate Bailey Timmer wrote a blog about the Whole Child Approach to teaching.  I was previously unfamiliar with this concept, but she laid out what it was and how it could and should be used and I agreed with her argument.  Another blog important to me was Tom Frank's blog about the importance of the arts in school.  He discusses how the Arts are vital in schools for students and their social and mental development.  A third blog I found interesting was Kate Shelton's blog on teachers' salaries.  She brings up many reasons why teachers should be paid more, and I couldn't agree more.  By reading through my peers' blogs, I feel that I have learned more about the profession and the problems I'll have to face within it.

My Thoughts on Blogging

Over the past four weeks, I've maintained and updated my blog about important issues in education to me.  During this time, I've learned a lot about blogging and how it could be used.  It could be the cynic in me, but blogging seems a little antiquated for my taste.  I'm sure there are situations where blogging can be a great medium (and maybe education will prove to be one of these), but feels like there are much better options now.  Blogs just don't feel like a necessity for a high school class to me.  I think that now there are much better means to communicate with students, parents, peers, and administrators that are simpler and more effective.  As of now, I don't plan on integrating blogging into my classroom for myself or for students.

Technology in the Classroom: Adblock

 

A stop sign

What is an Adblocker?

We all know the feeling of annoyance when an ad interrupts a video or when a popup blocks us from reading a page.  Fortunately, there are small programs and extensions that block these nuisances; the aptly titled adblockers.  These work by scrubbing a webpage clean of its ads to better the user experience.  The right adblocker can block popups, banners, videos, and other different types of advertisements.  By using an adblocker, websites are not only cleaner and less obnoxious-looking, but they are also safer.  By removing unwanted targeted ads, the user can't click on links that will take them to malicious websites that compromise their data and online security through the use of phishing and viruses, even the FBI put out a statement advising people to use an adblocker for this very reason.  One downside, however, is that the person or organization whose content you're looking at does not get ad revenue from your visit.  It is worth noting, though, that the people who know to use an adblock wouldn't typically click the ads regardless.

Its Place in the Classroom

Child covering their eyes

I believe that all computers used in schools should have adblockers on by default.  Too often have I seen teachers frustrated with ads that block the material they are trying to use for instruction.  This makes teachers less inclined to use valuable resources, such as YouTube, for supplemental instruction.  In addition to them being annoying in general, they can also show inappropriate content without cause.  I highly recommend turning off targeted ads for safety reasons, but a downside is that this makes ads unpredictable and could possibly show inappropriate images or words.  For instance, this exact scenario happened in a class of mine recently when an irrelevant and inappropriate ad popped up.  I also don't think that the loss of ad revenue is a big problem for these content creators because (generally) any group or person who is uploading educational content has some type of external sponsor, so the ads just generate a compatibly smaller portion of their income.  I think that all in all, there is no reason not to use an adblocker as an educator or student.  The benefits far exceed the slight negatives of using them and keep everyone safer online.