Blogging as a Tool in Schools

I believe a blog could be a great tool for teachers, students and parents. It can benefit all three groups of people by acting like a bulletin board with assignments, due dates, important events and changes in the original due dates. This way teachers can be assured that students have all pertinent information. Students do not have to worry about losing assignments or not knowing when a test is, and parents are informed about what homework their child has and when special events are happening.

The wonderful thing about blogs is that you can use them in all subjects and fulfill some of the ICT curriculum requirements. For example, one of the general ICT outcomes under Communicating, Inquiring, Decision Making and Problem Solving is C5: students will use technology to aid collaboration during inquiry. This can be achieved by having students discuss topics they did not understand on a blog and teachers could use it to help their students after school hours. This also gives the more timid students a chance to voice their opinions and concerns when they are too intimidated to do so in class. Another general ICT outcome under Foundational Operations, Knowledge and Concepts is F3: students will demonstrate a moral and ethical approach to the use of technology. For the safety of the students’ the teacher has to inform students of acceptable language, appropriate behaviour, consequences and amount of information given in a blog before students can use it. One more general ICT outcome under Processes for Productivity is P6: students will use communication technology to interact with others. This outcome can be achieved by teachers asking their students to set up a blog to publish their written work and then have other students peer assess it by give suggestions on what they liked, what could be improved and other inquiries on the piece. This type of assignment helps the student practice and develop their reading and writing skills.

As a first time blogger, my main concern about blogs was privacy but I am glad to read that you can have blogs where only members can post comments and therefore you would not have unwanted comments. My only other concern is there is a chance that students will not comply with the rules of ethics concerning blogs and other student will be hurt because everyone can view it which is a lot more detrimental than something private like an email.