January is a busy time for both teachers and high school students in New Jersey since it is the end of the first semester. Teachers are giving tests, preparing exams, and finalizing grades. Students should be turning in assignments and preparing for their exams.

As a teacher and grandparent, it was my intention to give advice on how grandparents can help teens prepare for exams. As you’ll see, I ended up on a completely different subject. I started with discussing the correlation between the ease of finding information on the internet and the steady decline of academic skills. Then one sentence led to another and I found myself on the topic of blogging and the development of important skills necessary for life long learning…hard to follow? Read on…

Bloggers often share their philosophical observations, opinions on social issues, and link favorite sites, often those that support a point being made. That means people are not only expanding their knowledge but also communicating through reading, thinking, and writing.

Each year I do see a decline in the amount of effort put forth by the average high school student. This isn’t just my opinion, it’s also that of other teachers with whom I’ve discussed it. There appears to be a connection between the increase in the amount of information on the internet and the decrease of their academic preparation and engagement.

The students have admitted to me that they look for the quickest and easiest way to do an assignment, often finding what they need online. Just as music, movies, games, and friends are readily available, so is information. There was a time when students met at the library to work on their assignments because that was where they needed to be to do the research. Now they meet online. Whereas students once needed to rely on their own skills to plan, research, evaluate and synthesize information then develop their own thesis and conclusion, now they just have to log on and someone somewhere has already done it for them…whether based on facts or sheer creativity…it’s out there in cyberspace.

What does this have to do with blogging? Blogging could be offered to students as a Language Arts elective to motivate them to improve their skills. Why? Let me explain.

First of all, teens are doing it at home… My Space…Facebook…and some, if they get the chance, are sneeking on at school. Since they are doing it, why not develop their skills around an activity they enjoy…without taking the enjoyment out.

Second, adults are doing it at work. Blogging is used as a communication tool within companies and schools, keeping colleagues informed and connected. It is also used as a marketing tool so that customers or clients can stay informed with new products, services, and upcoming events.

And, as many of us do, we enjoy blogging as a past-time, some even have the added benefit of earning an income from doing it. Not only is blogging a form of entertainment for the grandparents and grandchildren alike, it is the new Information Age skill. So my advice - after exams are over - let them safely blog…encourage them to choose a topic of interest…sign up with blogger.com, or another free blogging site where their peers hangout, and go from there…there’s lots of information on blogging out there!

Posted by Nana on January 17th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Filed under: Activities, Staying in Touch |  |  Leave a comment  |  Trackback