Although I no longer teach in the K12 system, the idea of using blogs in the classroom has been a great interest to me and I am hoping that I can pass this idea to the preservice teachers in my classes. On this note, I found a good article from the Internal Herald Tribune re: blogs as a classroom tool.

As i read through the article, I become aware of certain pedagogical/technological principles which blogs seem to provide. These principles follow along with the supported passages from the article.

Interaction:
“It allowed them to interact with their peers more quickly than a journal”

Simplicity:
“… blogs are attractive because they require little effort to maintain, unlike more elaborate classroom Web sites, which were once heralded as a boon for teaching.”

Student/Participant-Centred:
“The work that is required to refresh and maintain an interesting blog is being provided by students.”

Extend Learning:
“One way teachers use blogs is to prolong spirited discussions that have been cut short, or question-and-answer periods with guest speakers.”

Immediate Feedback and Digital Accessibility:
“I used to have this stack of hard-copy journals on my desk waiting to be read …. Now I can react to what they say immediately, and students can respond to each other.”

While I knew most of these attributes (re: blogging) existed before, it’s interesting to see how clearly they are perceived in this particular instance.

Related posts:

  1. Knoppix as a Classroom Learning Tool
  2. Introduction to Blogs and Blogging
  3. Blogs, Wikis & WebQuests at NECC 2004
  4. Insight On Academic Blogs
  5. Blogs in Education – Resource