Blogs in Education

Kelly O’Neill
T&L 466
September 24, 2007
Blogs in Education

1. There are many different types of Educational Blogs that can be found out on the web. When typing in Educational Blogs into three different search engines I came up with many of the same responses. I used the search engines of Google, Yahoo, and AOL. These search engines most likely came up with the same results because they are the blog pages that came up are very popular sites.
2. Educational Blogs can be used for many different purposes in the classroom. I remember going home from school sometimes and then having a question about an assignment. With blogs students can post questions to other students or the teacher on an assignment or anything else from class. Another interesting way to use blogs is to have an online discussion. This could be questions posted between the students and having their peers help them to answer instead of the teacher. The discussion could also include the students posting comments prior to an in class discussion that way all students can have some prior knowledge of what the other students have to say about the topic. A third interesting way to use blogs would be for the teacher to post different links that would aid in research for a project or assignment. For example a link to the local newspaper or a website that is not easily found if a student was to be searching on Google or Yahoo.
3. RSS readers and aggregators are used in blogs to have a connection to another web page that updates regularly. In a classroom a teacher could use a RSS reader or aggregator to allow students to stay updated on the latest news. A teacher could post a link on their blog to a national or local newspaper that has daily updates.
4. Blogging and the use of RSS readers will have a huge impact on the classroom. The blog pages will allow for better communication between the teacher and student and also between the student and another student. Teachers can post readings, assignments and grades on blogs while the students can post back questions to the teacher or other students. Also the use of blogs will help students become better equipped with using the internet. RSS readers will help students stay up to date on local or national issues.
5. While there are many advantages of using blogs in the classroom that I have already mentioned, there are some disadvantages as well. Two of the most important positive impacts of blogs would be the communication between the student and the rest of the class and teacher, and with RSS readers students will be able to say up on changing news. Some cons may be that while most families today have internet access, not everyone has a computer at home so it is important to know who has a computer and how does not and make different arrangements for those students who do not. Another con would be that students using the blogs in class may become distracted and go on to other non educational websites such as checking their facebook or myspace pages.