Blogging with Children 2

There are many reasons to get children involved in blogging. In the last post, I talked about it as a strategy to get families interested about the blog. All parents love to look at the photos and hear the voice of their child. When I bog with the children, I let them choose the photos and record what they say in their own words. Families will feel more connected to the teaching and learning happened at the kindergarten.

Equally important, children are contributing to their own assessment through blogging. I view children as competent learner, and they have opinions and views of their own. When they revisit their earlier work and related photos, they are able to make their own judgement about their achievements; and they are trusted with the decision of choosing what is recorded on the blog. It's also a way to gather data about children's learning from their perspective, which effectively helps the teachers develop relevant programme for individual children.

Moreover, blogging with young children empower them to be a competent and confident communicator. There are really a hundred languages to communicate; and in the digital age, which definitely include the web tools. To grow up as a responsible digital citizen, children need to have the opportunity to use the computer and internet responsibly at a young age.  Computer is not just for gaming and watching You Tube.

Just like today, I talked about the kindergarten gala and looked at the photos I have taken. With the photos, a child recreated what she was most excited about through the language of art/drawing. Her perspective of the BIG fire truck is vividly expressed through the dominating color of red, big ladder and many wheels it has. When she was choosing the photos of her drawing for posting on the blog, she noticed the missing siren, and then she added that bit on her drawing. So, the child was shifting her perspective from the artist of the drawing to the perspective of a viewer, and she made modification and improvement on her own. So, blogging is a tool for self-review or assessment for young children.

 Interested now? You may want to read more about early childhood and blogging in New Zealand.