As one of the Web 2.0 tools, blogs can be use in classroom environment as an educational tool. There are many ways that a blog can be beneficial. As a technology teacher I encourage blogs in the learning environment because it provides excellent opportunities for students to read and write it opens the doors for student discussion about a certain topic. It gives the students the opportunity to apply critical thinking skills. With a blog, people have an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions on a regular basis.
Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work together to develop academic skills. Teachers can offer instructional suggestions; positive feedback and students can practice and benefit from peer review.
In my school we run different types of blogs, an example of that is a Class blog that serves as a communication portal between the teacher and the student. These types of blogs are being used to inform students of class rules, homework assignments, and they also act as a question and answer board. A class blog opens a window of opportunity for students to talk about topics outside of the classroom. Students have the opportunity to be reactive and reflective to one another. Students even may collaborate with students from other classes or other schools to complete an interactive project or to get feedback from other students. In a class blog the teacher can create a showcase of students work and the students can reflect on their own work.
Cristina,
ReplyDeleteYour take on blogs in schools is refreshing to hear. Being a middle school teacher, I am concerned about the preferences, security, and management of them blogs and keeping kids safe from outsiders. I guess with learning more about how to manage a blog it would be less of an issue. I like the way you incorporate blogs into your school day to get students to write and share with each other and the teachers. I do believe that students will be more willing to write if they can use the computer to do so. Also, it will help them develop the proper computer social etiquette for future use.
I would like to hear more about how you started it (the setup, preferences,etc) as I would like to try one with a small group of my students as a pilot.
Thanks for the share. You always have such great ideas to share and 'Talk" about!. :-^