First of all, blogs can be an online filing cabinet.students have all of their works organized in one place makes for great opportunities for reflection. Students can look back over their work to see the improvement they have achieved. I love to trace back my previous posts to see how naive I was and how silly I used tobe. Also, students can see and give comments on others' posts, which is more convenient for students learning from others' work on blogs than in tranditional paper work ways.
Second of all, blogs expand the walls of the classroom. Students can discuss and chat with group members by comment on their posts or by online chatting rooms. Students can share pictures, texts audio and vedio materials via weblogs, which is hard to achieve in clasroom settings.
Last but not least, blogs can help develop students' expertise in one particular field. Students who blog in psychological healthy fucus their reading and writing on this topic and students blog in TESOL materials and nethods would collect many teaching activities and practical stategies.
In sum, blogs can be a tool for teachers to deliver their curriculum. It can improve students' learning if used in a proper way.
5 comments:
You have enumerated several good ways to use blogs. As teachers we are also life-long learners and can keep learning through reflections that we put on our own blogs or by reading the blogs of others in the field. It is a very good way to stay up-to-date!
Bing,
You have some good ideas on using blogs in the classroom. I am planning on teaching an ESL class and I think that I could benefit from some of your ideas, such as using the blog to 'expand the walls' in my class. I know that there isn't always time to cover everything in class, and using a classroom blog would allow for discussions and information sharing to continue after class is over. Thanks for the great ideas!
"Students can look back over their work to see the improvement they have achieved. I love to trace back my previous posts to see how naive I was and how silly I used to be."
You are so correct. When I was setting up this account, I found that my email address was already registered, and I was reminded that I used Blogger for my undergrad technology class my Freshman year. I went back to read some of those blogs and see how horrible my grammar was, and I saw how much my thought process how changed in four years.
This can be a new way for parents and students to save their schoolwork forever.
I agree with your post and with Katie that blogs can be great for students (and teachers) to save and look back at previous work. It's always fun and motivational to look at how far we've come and how much we have accomplished. Besides published work, it would be interesting for students to see how their opinions and thoughts change throughout the school year.
I agree that blogs can be a extended class wall, where students can share interetsing videos, pictures or articles. And I think it's a good oppotunity for students to learn how to blog safely. If the teacher are afraid that students may lose control, posting on class blog can be a good start.
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