A blog is a web page designed by the user to be used as a journal or diary and can contain links to other web sites. It provides a medium for topical communication and in educational settings it has the potential for collaboration of ideas from people/students around the world. Blogs also cater to a diverse range of learners and learning styles and encourage reading and writing.
In Educational settings the digital natives will find blogging a useful tool to express their points of view. In many cases within the classroom, the ideas from the quiet child may not be heard. Quite often, they are thinking about the problem and if asked, could offer valid solutions. More often than not the more eager student gets the opportunity to voice their opinion. Blogging provides these types of students with a different medium to express their thoughts in a reflective and analytical manner. It can also motivate students to write as they have other students' thoughts to consider and respond to.
The things you find when searching. I came across this form the Department of Education and training, 2009, which reinforces my comments about some students having a medium to voice their opinion.
"We are students: the ones who come to school every day, raise our hands with safe questions, and keep our heads down. Except, now we have a voice—a strong voice—to share our ideas through a global network". (DET, 2009)
After reading other blogs and the different content which can be input, i would like to add that blogs are a communication space/medium which students and teachers can utilise to share ideas through writing and researching links to relevant websites. They can also be a useful tool to reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom.
The level of sophistication of a blog will vary throughout year levels, however students in a prep year can use a blog to find, recall and remember information.
The user friendly design of my own blog page makes it engaging for me, as it is simple and quick to add and change information. This tells me that from student perspectives a blog encourages the sharing of ideas amongst peers and teachers where questions can be thought about more deeply, and feedback remains written to refer to and reflect upon(rather than verbal-which can be be forgotten or quickly lose impact). Huffaker (2005) explains it well by noting that blogs provide an medium where self-expression and creativity are encouraged enabling students to form social networks and discussion groups.
One thing that i have found about blogging is that it manages to break down barriers between people who may not ordinarily have a verbal conversation. Of course we choose who we speak to based more on our personalities, but the online forum changes that to some extent. I can only see this as a bonus from a learning perspective. I would call this maintaining an open mind and thinking flexibly- two vital Habits of mind for critical thinking and reflection.
References
Department of Education and Training (2009) retrieved from www.det.nsw.edu.au/
Huffaker, D (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE journal, 12 (2), 91-98
