Hey Again,
I never thought of blogging as a educational tool before. I always just thought about it as a journal or diary type thing. I actually think it would make a good educational tool. The good things that blogging has is that it can create discussions amoung students and encourage them to speak their minds. If each student had a blog, they could be assigned a subject to talk about and they could post their thoughts through their blogs. They can also invite all their classmates to their blog so they can comment on the posts. They can also personalize their own blogs with their pictures and their "about me" page. It seems more down to earth and not so structured which is much more appealing to children.
The disadvantage of using blogging is that it might get a little too informal. Students might get carried away with commenting in an immature way. Because it isn't so structured they will treat it more of a social network than a classroom discussion. It can also get too informal for the teacher. If they post things about their family, they might accidently give out too much information. It would be something they would have to be completely careful of.
If the teacher knows how get across to their students that it's not a social network, that it is to create dialogue and discuss...then I think it would be really great. They students have to be aware that the teacher will be monitoring all of the discussions so they need to make constuctive critism and be appropriate through their comments.
Until next time,
Melody
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I agree with many things you've included in your post. I also never really thought of blogging as an educational tool, more of just random subjects/topics. I like that you mention that one of the advantages of blogging is personalzing the page. I never really thought about the appearance of a blog until I read that. I had the most fun making my blog when I was able to choose the background page and update a picture ect. It definitely makes things more interesting on the page, especially when you can see a photo of them. When I read your disadvantages, I hadn't thought much about blogging being informal. I do agree that students may get a little to carried away with what they say. Since it is over the internet, they may feel that they can express themselves however they want. I mentioned something like this in my blog. The teacher would definitely need to go through rules and guidelines of blogging. I really enjoyed reading your posts, and agreed with all the topics you touched on. Looking forward to reading more!
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