Connecting and Collaborating Globally - How Blogs Can Help Achieve This Goal

We live in a diverse society. We are constantly interacting and working with those from other backgrounds, lifestyles, cultures, and ethnicities. According to blog user bholland (2013),

It would be great to see a shift in the way we look at learning. One where we begin to think of our students as not just learners but as connected and global learners. After all, they are connected in unprecedented ways once they eagerly leave school. As connected learners there are certain skills they need, new literacies they must develop, and if we are going to get them ready for their future – we must expand on our definition of learning.
 

As teachers, we need to help our students be successful in a multi-cultural, diverse world. Blogs can help us achieve this goal.

Bholland goes on to further discuss how blogs can be used to connect with students around the world (bholland, 2013). Classrooms can set up their own blogs which can be viewed, and commented on, by students from other classrooms. Blogs can be used for the purposes discussed in my previous post; however, rather than simply sharing the blog link with the class, it can be shared with students around the world.

Furthermore, global collaboration has various positive impacts. In her blog post titled "5 Ways To Inspire Students Through Global Collaboration", Schwartz (2012) discusses the reasons why global classroom collaboration is important as well as ways we can inspire students through collaboration. She states that when students collaborate with students from different cultures, their curiousity is sparked and they practice problem-solving skills (Schwartz, 2012). Blogs can be used to inform other students about specific cultural traditions, practices, and ways of life. Students can teach other students about a topic, interest, or hobby. Overall, using blogs for global communication promotes teaching, learning, and collaboration.

Lastly, The Edublogger contains a blog post in which two teachers discussed their personal experiences with global collaboration through blogging (Morris, 2012). Both Linda Yollis and Kathleen Morris are two teachers who used blogs within their classrooms. Linda Yollis lives in the United States and Kathleen Morris lives in Australia. After connecting via Kathleen's blog, the two teachers embarked on a blogging globalization project.

Through connecting and collaborating through classroom blogs, the students in both classrooms learned about different cultures, locations, and ways of life. Students not only talked to each other, but also completed collaborative projects via Web 2.0 tools. In fact, Morris' students even took a trip to the United States to visit their new friends. Blogging truly sparked lifelong friendships and a sense of collaboration.

My class is currently participating in a pen pal project with a fifth grade class in Turkey. Students are writing letters to each other, which we are scanning and sending through e-mail. Additionally, students wrote handwritten post cards to each other. After exploring ways to use blogs to promote global collaboration, I would like to incorporate blogging into this project!

References
bholland. (2013, September 26). How to redefine your classroom by connecting students – from Holly on Edudemic [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://edtechteacher.org/blog/?p=2113

K Morris. (2012, July 2). ISTE 2012: Flattening classroom walls with blogging and global collaboration [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://theedublogger.com/2012/07/02/iste-2012-flattening-classroom-walls-with-blogging-and-global-collaboration/

K Schwartz. (2012, November 19). 5 ways to inspire students through global collaboration [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/11/5-ways-to-inspire-students-through-global-collaboration/