Blogging is not as exciting for me as it might be for others. I do not mind reading other peoples up to date thoughts and feelings. I actually find it to be annoying when people update their blog on an hourly basis. Especially on social sites like Facebook and MySpace; I think that it is unbelievable that some people can update their stuff literally every ten minutes it seems. Like I said I do not mind reading about other people, but I am not going to be the one to let people know what I am doing every hour.
I think that blogging can be a positive aspect to socializing, but I do not understand how it could be beneficial to teaching. If the teacher has a blog about his/her class that includes assignments; then maybe it would be could be educationally beneficial. I am not the expert on this type of thing so my opinions reflect how I feel about blogging. I did however find two peer reviewed articles stating the positive aspects of blogging.
The web has become an essential medium in the classroom because it supports asynchronous and synchronous communication, which carries multimedia elements (Wang and Hsua 2009), and is easy to use. Experts in the field are developing applications that increase the flexibility of web technology, encouraging users to share their thoughts in an informal way. The origin of blogs (or web logs) rests on personal online journals; however, blogs can be interactive and can facilitate collaboration on the web. There has been a growing interest in blog use within learning environments. K-12 teachers, for example, can help students create personal blogs to record their reflections (Wang and Hsua 2009); establish blogs as a communication channel among themselves, students, and parents; or use blogs to demonstrate students’ learning processes and finished products on a regular basis (Wang and Hsua 2009). Blogs can serve as resource centers (Orate 2002); faculties can use blogs as teaching and learning aids in a higher-education context (Wang and Hsua 2009); and students can showcase their projects on blogs. Dickey (2004) studied the effect of blog use on learner perceptions of isolation and alienation and found that blogs supported the formation of an online community. Moreover, Herring, et al. (2004) analyzed 203 blogs and pointed out that blogs can serve as interactive knowledge-exchange tools. The greatest merit of blogs is that the members of a community can exchange thoughts on a public channel without using HTML language, which allows users to focus on writing content rather than editing HTML language. Blogs enable users to archive articles and comments contributed by the community, and to share these re- sources and findings with people who are out- side the community and who are interested in the given topic. These features provide educators with further opportunities to use blogs in the classroom.
"Kids are getting excited and engaged in literacy through blogging, commenting, and sharing ideas" online, said Wesley Fryer, director of instructional support services for the Texas Tech University College of Education. Fryer's blog, "Moving at the Speed of Creativity," which mixes insights on education theory with sound, practical advice for educators, won in the category "Best Education Theory Blog (Pierce 2009). "There is an excitement that comes from writing for a real, authentic audience instead of a circular file seen only by the teacher, Fryer said, adding that this thrill can be a huge motivator for students. Frank LaBanca, a science teacher at Newtown High School in Connecticut, is using a class blog called "Applied Science Research" to challenge his students with frequent, short writing assignments designed to make them think critically. LaBanca, whose blog won in the category "Best Classroom Instruction Blog for Students," said the blog enables him to have a high-level, asynchronous conversation with his students that extend the boundaries of the traditional classroom (Pierce 2009). "Our students are tech-savvy, and we need to make sure we take advantage of this," he said (Pierce 2009).
References:
Dickey, M. D. (2004). The impact of web-logs (blogs) on student perceptions of isolation and alienation in a web-based distance-learning environment. Open Learning, 19(3), 279-291.
Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Bonus, S., & Wright, E. (2004). Bridging the gap: A genre analysis of weblogs. Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science HICSS-37.
Oravec, J. A. (2002), Bookmarking the world: Weblog applications in education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(7), 616-621.
Pierce, Dennis (2009). Panelists: Blogs are Changing Education. Found September 23, 2009 on the website www.eschoolnews.com
Wang, Shiang-Kwei and Hsua, Hui-Yin (2009). Reflections on Using Blogs to Expand In-Class Discussion. Found September 23, 2009 on the website Ebsco.
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