Blogs for Collaborative Learning

This month's edition of Educational Leadership magazine is all about collaborative learning among teachers.  In particular, the article titled "Learning with Blogs and Wikis" is useful and relevant to the work we're doing in this class.  Quoting Richard Elmore, a professor of educational leadership at Harvard, the article makes the bold assertion that "schools are hostile and inhospitable places for learning.  They are hostile to the learning of adults," the article says, "and, because of this, they are necessarily hostile to the learning of students."  That's quite an attention grabber!

The article goes on to observe two significant changes helping to counteract this unfortunate situation.  First, is a new emphasis on collaborative learning among members of close knit teams of teachers--not lip-service to the idea, but making it actually happen.  The second is that digital tools are helping to provide what Elmore calls "portals through which new knowledge about teaching and learning can enter schools."  The article goes on to talk about how blogs and wikis are valuable tools for collaborative learning in schools and among educators.

To check out the February of Educational Leadership, click here.  The whole magazine is worth a look, but if you're pressed for time (and who isn't?) check out the "Learning with Blogs and Wikis" article.  You can skip the instructional material about blogs since this class has already made us sufficiently blog-savy in this area.  If you focus on the points about teachers using blogs for collaborative learning, you might find this interesting.  Let me know.