Sunday, March 14, 2010
Blogs in Education
I am very new to blogging and have been quite resistant to the blog-world. I believe a lot of blogs are written by people who have nothing of interest to say. However, I can definitely see the value in using blogs in education. I personally would consider setting up blogs for each student so that they can recount the events of the school day or week or what they got up to on the weekend and get fellow classmates or parents to comment. It would be a great way of teaching the children the art of the recount as well as encouraging them to always consider their audience when they write. I would worry, however, about privacy and would only use it if I could set up some sort of private group or a VLE with limited access for the students, parents and teacher only.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You could certainly set up private blogs for the students. Although that limits the potential of students developing a public voice online, it may well be appropriate in some contexts, especially with younger children. An alternative, with more public blogs, is to make sure students don't include identifying pictures or information, and to ensure that all comments are moderated before they are made publicly viewable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm always concerned about the privacy issue too - if children did get caught out in some way using a public blog, wouldn't that put you, as the teacher, in a lot of trouble? I think perhaps it is more a tool for older years, who are (you would hope) more thoughtful and aware of what they are posting about themselves and others.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're right - public blogs are better for older kids. Even then, they're best not to include identifying information.
ReplyDelete