Reflections on Using Blogs

A Web Log, or blog, is a website which is a type of on-line journal that is added to by posting; text, pictures, videos, audio or links. This personal publishing medium can be used in the classroom context to store and present students work. Students can comments on other students’ posts to create a dialogue on their current topics. Teachers could use the tool to post tasks, homework, games, pictures, notices and information for parents or students.


Useful sources for information on Blogs:
Educational Blogging, Remarkablogger, Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog, Blogging in the Classroom and Blogs in Education




There are many positive, negative and interesting things about the use of blogs in the classroom.

Positive
- Blogs can encourage collaborative learning resulting in greater peer discussion and debate
- Information can be accessed by the students at home
- Greater pathways of communication are possible between the teacher, students and parents
- It can provide an interactive and engaging element to lessons
- It can encourage technological literacy, critical literacy, writing and editing skills
- They are a flexible tool and can be embedded within a lesson from any of the KLA’s
- They can act as a useful reflection tool that can represent students developing knowledge and understanding on a topic
- Students have the possibility to be linked with information, opinions and resources from all over the world
- The use of this popular digital tool may challenge and encourage teachers to update their own technological literacy to match the knowledge of some of the students

Negative
- Access to the technology may be limited by school resources, students resources at home or the teacher’s level of computer knowledge
- Not all ‘Digital Natives’ are as competent on the computer as it is assumed. They may spend large amounts of time gaming or on social networking sites, but lack wider technical understanding
- Blogging requires students to increase their ‘screen time’ at time when obesity is an increasing issue in Australia
- Forums may be used as a source for venting, exclusion or bullying if they are not closely monitored
- Students whom are not confident with IT’s may be less motivated to participate in the tasks
- The extra time required of teachers to set up and maintain a blog could become a source of added stress in an already crowded and demanding curriculum

Interesting
- The assumptions that just because something is a new technology that it must automatically be engaging for the students. Remarkablogger makes an interesting observation on the importance of remembering the human behind the technology. Blogging is a tool for teachers to use which can engage students with the content. Teachers must always ensure that the content is the driving force or the students will be engaged and entertained but may have learnt nothing.
- The balance that teachers must find between censorship and free expression. Starting to use a blog in the classroom would require a great deal of scaffolding, establishing rules and boundaries and monitoring of content. This could teach students important lessons about professional conduct, bullying, critical literacy and the media.