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What is a Blog? An online journal or informational website is written in an informal or conversational style. A writer (Blogger) shares views on an individual subject for connection, self-expression, to distribute information and reflect on experiences and opinions. Bloggers provide answers to commonly asked questions and provide advice. The following video is entertaining regarding blogs. https://youtu.be/NjwUHXoi8lM  

Did you know that Wikipedia has a list of notable blogs, approximately 165 blogs with a vast range of topics? When you decide to set up a blog, there are different blog hosts (examples: Wix, Weebly, Blogger, Bold Grid, SquareSpace, Site123, WordPress). The comparison of blog hosts Wix, Weebly, WordPress, and Blogger offer free blog platforms, no worry about setup and hosting, your shared domain name is free. Wix and Weebly use drag and drop templates. WordPress step by step introduction tutorial gave you the impression of simplicity and a beginner-friendly platform, but the jury is still out for deliberation.

Blogs differ from other technologies like discussion boards in that a blogger creates a blog post sharing an idea or point of view in one day. A discussion board is built to have interaction, comments, posts, people asking, and answering questions continually.  

What identifies a blog’s affordances for learning? The blog offers a social environment for people to share knowledge and information within their reflections. What better way to exchange ideas obtain information and strategies through writing. A convenient communication through technology. Blogging is a social media platform that affords or allows for collaborative learning, presenting diverse opinions and views. The blog design feature is to help and support a person to think, facilitate their cognitive learning while other technologies hinder building cognitive and metacognitive skills.

Blogs can improve student writing, stimulate a class discussion, and be used for group work. Challenges arise daily for math students seeking solutions to particular questions. A lot of students want a quick fix, but blogging can allow students to become self-directed learners. As any math teacher will tell you, the students can produce the right answers, but can they explain the reasoning of how they provided that answer. Our lesson on the blog will start off with answer-seeking questions for a review of fractions.  

What is the numerator?

What is the denominator?

Write an example of equivalent fractions?

Compare 4/7 to 3/7 using the < or > symbol.

Compare 3/7 to 3/4 using the < or > symbol.

Incorporating open-ended questions will require students to explain, thinking. What does the symbol < and > represent?

For each problem below, add or subtract.

1/2 – 1/4  = ______

4/8 + 1/2  = ______

3  1/7 + 5  12/21 = ________

Explain the steps used to solve the problems. 

For the problem, find the missing factor by computing the inverse operation.

4  1/2 – _______ = 2  7/8

What could you have done differently to solve the problem?

The previous information used the blogging tools to enhance instruction through engaging questions of the students. We shifted to probing questions requiring students to explain, elaborate, or clarify their thinking. To transform learning for the student to ask students to make fraction mathematics visible. Let them demonstrate using drawing tools having 1/2 of a pie and subtracting a 1/4 of the cake. The students can draw a comparison of equivalent fractions. You can ask the group to write their own equations. Lastly, encourage reflection and justification for the students’ reasoning and actions by having each student post a reflection on the lesson. Ask them questions to check for accuracy – Can you create and solve a problem similar to this one? Check for understanding – Can you convince us you are correct? Check for Clarity – What pieces of the puzzle make sense to you, and which parts are confusing? Giving Clarity – How can your classmates help you? Draw it? Talk about it? Please encourage students to ask questions of one another and communicate their thoughts clearly. Students’ own questions can take the conversation to new levels, with them explaining their strategies, agreeing, disagreeing, and asking, “Why did you…?”

The participation of the students completing the assignment and answering open-ended questions supports the pedagogy while shifting toward reflection and justification builds conceptual understanding within the technology.As with any tool to support learning obstacles arise, maybe the student is hindered because they do not know their math facts and can not use them accurately. Teachers are concentrating on teaching a focused set of math concepts and skills. This allows the student time to master math skills as they move grade levels. The challenge in math education is to provide rich content and engaging students in solving real-world problems.

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