BP3_2009121_EduUses4Blogs

Everywhere you look these days; there are blogs on everything from how to brush your teeth to how to start a business. The popularity of blogs have also made their way into classrooms and these personal web space or online journals as they are called by some are not only limited to the general things like brushing your teeth and starting a business.

Blogs are very popular in the classroom because of their usefulness and helpfulness to teachers. Teachers like them because they can easily collaborate with students, other teachers and parents. It is an easy way to share ideas and inputs on various topics. Bloggers can create newsfeeds on any topic. It is also a useful tool for sharing information about the class or school, rather than waiting for the monthly newsletter, you can log on and read the latest news about the class or school…blogs save trees, no printing and no paper.

Some of the ways that blogs are being used for educational purposes include, postings of course content, web links to research for reports and assignments, postings of syllables, upcoming assignment, test dates, postings of questions for teachers and fellow students, there are so much that teachers, parents and student can post on their blogs. Since it is online, there are no special logins to access them. All that one would need is the link. Blogs are also used as communication tools for teacher-to-teacher communication, teacher to parent communication as well as teacher to student communication in some educational settings.

In my search of education uses for blogs, I came across numerous sites making mention of the much usefulness of blogs in education. The following are some of those sites and some of the useful ways to use blogs in education:

http://www.educatr.com/uses:

·Informational Resources

·Course, Classroom, or School Management Systems

·Student, Class, Teacher or Art Portfolio's

·Collaborations or Collections

·Electronic Filing Cabinets.

·Professional Learning Community Blogs

·Enhanced Reading Experience

·Enhancing Literacy/Language Discussions

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogs-in-education.html:

Blogs are used to create learning communities, helps to motivate kids to do their best, gives ownership to kids, gives access to broader worldwide audience, helps kids articulate their needs and inform their learning, it teaches a variety of skills and can be used as collectivity enquiry into a particular topic or subject matter. Teachers can start a blog by using it to post class information or reading list.

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0450.pdf:

Here is a quote from the above website which sums up my views on blog in education:

“The process of reading online, engaging a community, and reflecting it online is a process of bringing life into learning.”