At first I have to say I was against blogging. I felt I was being forced into the Myspace/Facebook society against my will. I know some people who do these sorts of personal blogging, I know the advantages of them, but I still have absolutely no desire to participate in those afore mentioned sites. But the web logging for this class and in education can be a very good asset to any class. It offers whole class discussion, a way to connect outside of the class and over all provides information which may not become readily available in the class otherwise. Not to mention it helps students become more computer friendly, I don’t see a serious disadvantage to using web logs in a classroom. I see some, but I will save those for the end of this blog.
The greatest advantage I can see with having this blog is that I can express my thoughts and ideas and receive feedback from others. This not only opens up valuable discussions, it allows me to think on subject matter in an entirely different way. In other words it promotes critical thinking and offers many different views on a subject which is great for education. It also allows an otherwise shy student to express themselves and give their views, which can be a valuable asset to the class they may not have received otherwise.
The only disadvantage I can see is that it can become time consuming and if you are required to post on other’s blogs and no one has done so yet, then this could become a tedious arrangement. Another disadvantage would be security and content. I can see where it would be hard to protect students from everything that is on the web. The best we could do is to warn them and let them become responsible users on their own.
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Mick, I must agree with you the blog can be utilized as a benificial tool to a teacher in the twenty first century. The blog allows the student learn and discuss in a technological based environment that they be may be used to because of all of the technology that surrounds them in their everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteHi Mick,
ReplyDeleteWell my comment to Kaela went through lets see if this one also works. I signed in using my Google reader account instead of that useless OpenID thing.
Blogging is kinda fun when everything works, but quite frustrating when it doesn't. (Like everything else in the world. It must just be me.)
I don't see it being much easier to post on line for shy students than normal class stuff. Theoretically we have a wider audience here than all of the classes we have ever attended put together. Perhaps if it is just about the live interaction?
I can see blogging as being useful in class, and I can see it getting out of had quickly if not closely monitored.
Thanks for a great semester, good luck next year.
Al