BP1_2009101_Educational Uses for Blogs

Blogs can be used for educational purposes. Educational purposes for blogs include: group discussion or coordination tools, course-based journals for assessment, personal reflective journaling, personal knowledge sharing, and class ‘dialogue’ (Leslie, 2003). Click on the following link to find a matrix displaying some of the uses of blogs in education: http://www.edtechpost.ca/gems/matrix2.gif

Blogs are commonly used to support reading and writing in the curriculum. Some blogs are teacher focused, while others are developed for student involvement. Other educational uses for blogs include using blogs for informational resources; course, classroom, or school management systems; student, class, teacher, or art portfolios; collaborations or collections; electronic filing cabinets, professional learning community blogs; enhancing the reading experience and literacy/language discussions (Hooker, 2005).

Practical ideas for blogs:

Teachers could use blogs by creating discipline specific sites that provide instructional materials, rubrics, and models for the subjects that they teach. For example, writing teachers can post instructional materials and rubrics for different essay genres that other writing teachers can use.

Teachers can also use blogs to communicate best practices with other teachers, as well as a reflective tool to garner support and to create a professional learning community.

Students can collaborate and develop relationships with other students around the country through blogs that focus on a common interest or curriculum strand.

Math teachers can post a problem that relates to the lesson that they covered during the school day to check for student understanding.

Teachers can form on-line literature circles through blogs in order to enhance the reading experience.

Teachers can use blogs to communicate with parents about what is going on in the classroom.

Institutions can use blogs to post meeting minutes and to keep members in the environment updated on community information.

Professors can use blogs to post audio of lectures for students and then have students write responses to information presented. The following link will take you to a slideshow with a variety of ideas for educational uses of blogs: http://www.slideshare.net/sqoolmaster/educational-uses-of-blogs-and-tags-234136

In my classroom, my students are working to develop and maintain a blog about classroom happenings from their own perspective. They are responsible for the content and media assets for the site. In order to make this blog more successful, I realize now that I will need to schedule in time once a week for the students to update the information.

References

Hooker, S. (2005). Educational uses of blogs. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from http://www.educatr.com/uses

Leslie, S. (2003). Matrix of some uses of blogs in education. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from http://www.edtechpost.ca/wordpress/2003/10/09/Matrix-of-some-uses-of-blogs- in- education/

All images from Creative Commons at flickr.com