Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

Easy to create, millions of people have taken advantage of the collaborative space blogs offer, and have become by far the most popular adapted tool of Web 2.0.  Anything you can think of—dogs, cars, shoes, sports—and there is probably several thousand blog sites dedicated to whatever meets your interest.  While some might look at blogs as simply a new way of journaling or just another place where photos can be posted or links to interesting videos can be watched, I like to think they all serve some sort of purpose no matter how simple or elaborate they may be.  However, in education, these sites are not social tools, they are learning tools.   

Blogs have expanded the walls of the classroom.  Communication between student and teacher doesn’t have to end at 3 p.m. when the bell rings.  If, for instance, I was teaching a high school multimedia journalism class and forgot to mention an assignment or an upcoming deadline, a blog like this would come in handy.  Using a blog as a classroom portal gives students immediate access to course material, assignments or changes to the schedule at any moment.  There are no unexpected surprises to the course curriculum because everything can be kept track of online.  

Teachers can also assign students to create their own blog to use as an online portfolio for posting different assignments throughout the year (RSS makes this process a lot simpler when teachers, or students, want to view others work because instead of going to 20 or more different blogs sites, everything can be automatically updated in one place).  Not only does this provide a different avenue to share ideas and receive feedback within the class, but it also allows others to become involved in the learning process.  Lets go back to the multimedia journalism class I mentioned above, and let’s say my class is working on a unit on photojournalism.  Their assignment for the week is to take pictures at various school events and write cutlines (photo captions) for 10 photos.  Because of the ease of digital cameras, students can load their picture to their computers, pick the 10 they like, write their cutlines and post their assignment to their blog.  Students can then be able to comment and critique each other’s work, or even a photo editor from the local newspaper can be invited to offer expert insight.  

Of course, not all of the assignments of a multimedia course are as clear-cut as the previous example, and one of the great values of blogging in a journalism course is that it provides students with a place to work on their editorial skills in a critical way. Yes, editorial pieces allow a writer to voice their own opinion, but you can’t just pontificate about an issue, you need to provide a critical perspective.  Blogs have somewhat facilitated that process because they have inadvertently created a new style of writing and a new way of thinking.  Whether it’s for a journalism class or an English literature course, when students are given an assignment for a new blog post they aren’t just reading words to find an answer anymore, they’re looking for pieces of information to make connections and synthesize ideas for their post.  In essence, they are developing the proper critical skills needed to succeed in a higher education setting.    

Using blogs as an educational tool can add a whole new dimension to the classroom, but it’s really up to each teacher to determine how best they work for their particular class.  I think the key is to make sure blogs are utilized either daily or biweekly.  You can’t just set up blogs site and half way through the semester stop using them.  The more you work with them the better the classroom experience can become.