Business Blogging: Are You Smarter than a Second Grader?
May 24, 2008 by Liz Fuller
Filed under Social Media
Recently Laura took a look at how school districts are using blogs. Some classrooms are also using blogs and even creating podcasts. I found one video called Why Blog? gives a 2nd grade classroom’s reasons for blogging.
Many of their reasons are equally relevant to your business blog.
Check it out for yourself on Teacher Tube.
In case you can’t watch the video, the following is their list of Why they Blog:
#10 – to keep a weblog or journal of what is going on in the classroom
#9 – to communicate with parents and students
#8 – to share ideas and successes with our class, parents, and other teachers – even my grandmother in Mexico!
#7 – it’s easy to maintain and you can edit it from any computer with internet access
#6 – you can share pictures, videos, podcasts and other media
#5 – parents and students can leave comments, like if a teacher posts a question, all the students can answer
#4 – you can link to other blogs and web pages
#3 – you can enhance your blog with widgets, which are electronic gadgets such as polls, weather updates and more!
#2 – it’s easy to see the newest updates because a blog is a website where entries are kept in reverse chronological order so the newest entry is on top!
#1 – we love learning with technology!
Thanks to Shannon Cherry for the inspiration for this post.
photo credit: ctsnow
Great ideas. It’s just too bad they aren’t working. Educators seem stuck in the “fun” or “cool” aspect of technology. But that doesn’t get the kids the fundamentals that are essential to build from, nor does it get them ready for the future. I graduated from high school in 1968. I was an average to poor student. But I still could read, write, and “cypher ‘em numbers”.
In fact, I got through college in only 4 years… with summers off. A very rare occurrance today. Plus I didn’t have to take one remedial class at all. By the way, my SAT score was 1240 pdd. (pre-dumb down)
Look, I only mention this because if it was possible for my generation, it is possible for this generation. and the next. We didn’t have calculators, we used slide rules, and we used them well enough to get a man on the moon. No Virginia, calculators weren’t invented in 1969. And what very few computers that existed ran programs on paper tape. It’s almost obscene that educators are creating a generation of humans that won’t know what to do if theres no electricity. Hmmmm have you heard of Electro-Magnet Pulse?
Hi Tom
You make some interesting points. I’m not sure that blogging will have an impact either way on a student’s ability to do math – but I actually was thinking just the opposite about the connection between blogging and a student’s ability to write. I would think it would have a positive influence.
I think one of the biggest demotivators in academics is homework that seems meaningless – blogging however is visible and creates connections – which provides an inherent motivation to it that students don’t have in their other assignments.
What an interesting list of why to blog. I’ll have to mention this link to the adult students in my blogging class next week. I think they can learn from the 2nd graders…actually we all can!
Mary Emma Allen
(www.homebiznotes.com)
Hi Mary Emma
It is a good list – and your students might be interested in the original podcast as well! It’s inspiring to see what can be done by people who aren’t “techies”!