BP1_2009104_Blogs and its Educational Uses

Like Video RSS, Podcast and other types of new Media Assets, blogs can be use in classroom environments for Journal entries; it also can be a useful tool to link communication between study groups within a class or other classes or even schools. If used effectively, blogs can create a learning environment that extend beyond the school building

Thanh Nguyen stated in a blog(2006), that there are numerous educational benefits of blogs. Blogs are:
• Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.
• Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.
• Effective forums for collaboration and discussion.
• Powerful tools to enable scaffolding learning or mentoring to occur

As the growing world of blogs become more accessible in more places and at different times, students can benefit from real time communication. Instead of waiting to find out what is going on the next day. Students can also benefit from using blogs in education by creating Discussions and Journals for teachers to read. "The personal journal, also widely popular in the late 1990s, actually developed independently of weblogs. Personal journals, or online diaries, were described by Simon Firth as "direct, personal, honest, almost painful to read and yet compelling too," but by the time Firth’s article in Salon was written in July 1998, personal journals were on the verge of extinction. "Many of the biggest journal ‘fans’ began online journals themselves, and soon everyone ended up mostly writing about each other. Some of them got famous, others got resentful," this was stated by Stephen Downes.(2004) In many cases students will be able to talk when they need to and open doors for educating themselves on topics they are interested in.

But the true test comes with monitoring the blog and what is posted. This above all else is what some students are not taught and that is internet etiquette. Eric Sinrod states,"More importantly, users simply should engage in proper communications on educational institution IT systems. If they do that, they will not have to worry about anything that unlikely monitoring would reveal."(2004). In all cases School IT should always be monitoring what students are looking at and responding to. In a teachers perspective, we also need to make sure it is okay for students to use these media assets, by suppling permission slips home and checking with the school Principal and District It Manager.