Blogs are about communicating in writing. This writing can be as simple as a diary entry or as sophisticated as a news story, depending on the purpose of your blog. Because blogs allow others to view and respond to your writing, they allow users to interact, collaborate, and learn from one another.
Educational blogging is blogging done by students, teachers, educational administrators, industry experts, college professors, and anyone else involved in education and training. Educational blogging is also the use of blogs to teach basic skills such as reading, writing, and critical thinking.
How can blogs be used in education? They can be used for . . .
Communication:
Teacher and Student Communication
Teacher and Parent Communication
Administrator/Teacher and Community Interaction and Communication
Dialogue Generation (Teacher and Student Interaction)
Teachers can post questions about content and ask students to respond, checking for prior learning, assessing current knowledge, and determining student interests. Teachers can include writing prompts in their blogs to encourage student writing.
Student Blogs
Having their own blogs encourages students to express their ideas, share their learning, and interact with other students in writing. Student blogs do not have to be public and access to a student blog can be controlled. Students can practice giving and receiving feedback and constructive criticism.
Teacher Blogs
When teachers create and maintain their own blogs, they can share ideas and teaching experiences, ask for advice and resources, and generate discussion. Teachers can follow other teacher blogs as professional development (Learning with Blogs and Wikis by Bill Ferriter).
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In response to your question "How can blogs be used to teach basic skills and encourage critical thinking skill development?"
ReplyDeleteI think blogs could be a great way to teach writing/English skills. It would give a creative, interesting, and technology enhanced spin on an otherwise difficult lesson.
The first idea that came to mind when I read this was having learners post comments to a topic while being mindful of their grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. Then, have others in the class (if applicable) review the post for errors. You could have them focus on the discussion first (did they provide enough supportive evidence in their response, etc). Then, you could have them focus on the English and/or conversation skills. There may be a technology learning curve, but that's an essential skill in today's work world too!
Great use of blogs and including the collaborative element -- students reading one another's blogs and providing constructive feedback -- is very important. Think of the jobs people have today where they must collaborate with others at a distance to create new products.
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