Blogs in Education

1) Three interesting ways blogs are being used in K-12 classrooms include what used to be pen pals, but now with blogs. When I was in elementary we had pen pals because we were not used to having computers in class and we were also only just starting to learn to type. Know students are learning to use computers at a much younger age and are able to communicate through blogs which are much faster than regular mail. Another way that blogs are being used in the classroom is to communicate with parents. It is faster and more efficient to post questions or concerns to a blog then to wait for notes to come back and forth. Parents are also able to see what their children are working on. Blogging for students keep them thinking and posting their own ideas. It also gives them the chance to respond quickly to other students views. Students also can use blogs for reflective writing or journals, submitting assinments, groupwork, and sharing course-related resources with other students.


2) Using aggregators within a classroom would be beneficial to student learning. They can teach students how to search topics for research projects. They are quick and easy ways for teachers to connect students to websites on topics that are covered in the classroom. They are also helpful for keeping track of your favorite websites and blogs.

3) There are a couple of impacts that blogging has on K-12 classrooms. Blogging can improve many of students skills. These could include reading, writing, typing speed, and creative thinking. Blogging also allows parents to have advance notice about homework that is due. This allows parents to help students and to keep them updated with what their child is learning. Children become exicted when they get to blog to each other, so it keeps them interested in the classroom.

4) There are both pros and cons of using blogs in education. A couple of cons are not all students have computers at home, so it would be important to make all blogging done in class. Another con is the possible saftey of blogging. It is important that for younger students teachers keep blogs only between the classmates. This prevents outsiders from communicating with the students. A pro is that blogging is quick. A student can post something and a teacher can have a response posted quickly. Another pro is that with older students feedback can come from more people than just a teacher. As a teacher you could set up their blogs to be viewed by outside people, allowing a wider range of feedback to be posted.