The Use Of Blogs in K-12 (ePub)

There are always challenges in teaching K-12 students Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics which is called STEM subjects due to the scientific nature of these disciplines that require strong and higher order thinking along with the ability to connect abstract concepts and relate to them. Additionally, there is a decrease in number of students interested in these disciplines (Hom, 2014). By offering more choices to students and by providing more authentic assessments to their students, and by allowing students to take active role in their education, intrinsic motivation of students will improve (Albrecht et al., 2009). A new way of looking at STEM education is to teach these disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics as one. Additionally, the effectiveness of STEM integration is manifested once it's organized in a PBL setting and used by the teacher and students in teams for solving specific problem or managing a specific project in a specific time frame. PBL enables students to collaborate with each other, apply their prior knowledge, stay engaged, and it makes them gain different skills throughout the project So, it is necessary for teachers to explore alternative methodologies and built-up methods that reinforce the important skills related to STEM, in order to achieve a high-quality education. These skills will improve the students' involvement in learning, as well as their social and ethical commitment. It will provide critical thinking and problem solving, effective communication, collaboration and team building, creativity and innovation. Not only it will enable them to assess their learning, but also their ability to learn and their learning skills in general. The ability for innovation is based on a set of skills and knowledge which produces creative thinking among students. These skills are not only technical but also include soft skills, that are crucial in boosting innovation. . So, blogging can provide a promising medium for students to engage in reflection as they participate in a PBL. It can actually guide a project by providing a productive place for team members to communicate clearly, to document their work and input other resources, and also brainstorm their ideas. Research also suggests that blogging brings other advantages for students like increasing their motivation to learn and provide them with ICT skills. Blogs also bring to classroom differentiated instruction for diverse students, or it can be used as electronic portfolios for students: using e-portfolio system individually positively influence some subjects, it encourages students using computer or cellphone to reach the information on virtual environments to assess themselves and to monitor their computer skills, and their development. It provides a creative way of organizing, summarizing, and sharing student work and to demonstrate evidence of students' professional growth (Karademir et al., 2016; McBride et al., 2015). Blogs can also be used as a supplementary medium to promote achievement and knowledge acquisition for students as well as an information searching and sharing skills within a learning community. Furthermore, once blogging was used in a PBL STEM environment and was managed effectively, this will maximize the advantages of it. Hence comes the Agile methodology in managing such STEM projects with blogs. Agile is a demanding methodology for organizations in general and educational organizations in particular, because Agile helps teams in projects to manage and adapt quickly to change. Additionally, Agile provides students with workforce ready skills and it gives them better performance in group projects (Hulshult & Woods, 2020). It can be used to manage STEM projects in education combined with blogging.