Blogs

Blogs are becoming an important part of modern classroom learning. Blogs can be used by students to communicate with other students from different schools around the world on a common subject matter. They are able to comment on each other’s work and keep a record of the conversations for future reference. This can then become a one stop shop where all their information can be kept and stored for quick retrieval. Not only can the blogs be used to communicate with other students but also outside agents e.g. In the manual arts classroom students can establish blogs with outside experts to discuss design and manufacturing ideas on their projects and follow recommendations made by the experts.

Blogs are not only bound by text, but images, sounds and movies can be added to advance students interaction in the classroom. This type of learning can be of great benefit for students who are visual and auditory learners.

Teachers are able to follow and monitor student progress and conversations with each other and keep a sense of order. As April James discussed in her blog titled “Blogs in the classroom” teachers are able to monitor issues such as plagiarism and cyber-bullying. If the blogs are not monitored cyber-bullying could become a real problem and distract from the learning it was intended for. http://aprilljames.blogspot.com

I believe Blogs in the classroom are a modern adaption of the school of the air, where students from remote areas would conduct classes via two way radio with their teacher. Blog are a great tool to be used in the classroom to engage students, however if not monitored a number of negative issues could arise and divert from the learning intended.