This Message Center is organized and operated by David Vitale How weblogs benefit teaching and learning

Not sure how weblogs can benefit you or your students?  The following list includes ways to use weblogs in education.  (Modified from ade.teachnology.org and Educational Blogging by Stephen Downes in the Educase Review). 

Create a reflective, journal type blog to...

• reflect on your teaching experiences.  
• keep a log of training experiences.
• write a description of a specific teaching unit.
• describe what worked for you in the classroom or what didn't work. 
• provide some teaching tips for other teachers.
• provide tips and insights to an adminstrator audience. 
• write about something you learned from another educator.
• explain teaching insights you gain from what happens in your classes.
• share ideas for teaching activities or language games to use in the classroom. 
• provide some how-to's on using specific technology in the class, describing how you used this technology in your own class.
• explore important teaching and learning issues.
• communicate with the public.
• share news on important and developing events and circumstances.
• communicate and inform colleagues or co-workers.

Start a class or school blog to...

• post class-related information such as calendars, events, homework assignments and other pertinent class information.
• post assignments based on readings and have students respond using the comments feature.
• communicate with parents.
• post prompts for writing.
• provide examples of classwork, vocabulary activities, or steps to thinking about problems.
• provide online readings for your students to read and react to.
• gather and organize Internet resources for a specific course, providing links to appropriate sites and annotating the links as to what is relevant about them.
• post photos and comment on class activities.
• invite student comments or postings on issues in order to give them a writing voice.
• publish examples of good student writing done in class.
• showcase student art, poetry, and creative stories.
• create a dynamic teaching site, posting not only class-related information, but also activities, discussion topics, links to additional information about topics they are studying in class, and readings to inspire learning.
• create a literature circle. (See Roundtables, too)
• create an online book club. (See Roundtables, too)
• make use of the commenting feature to have students publish messages on topics being used to develop language skills.
• ask students to create their own individual course blogs, where they can post their own ideas, reactions and written work.
• post tasks to carry out problem and project-based learning tasks with students.
• build a class newsletter, using student-written articles and photos they take.
• link your class with another class somewhere else in the world.
• share news and events with a non faculty/staff audience.
• replace the standard class or school webpage.
• link Internet content that relates to your course.

(The Student Center's podcasting tool can also perform many of the above functions in an audio-visual format)

Encourage your students (either on your weblog using the comments feature or on their own weblogs) to... 

• write their reactions to thought-provoking questions.
• write their reactions to photos you post.
• record journal entries.
• upload results of surveys they carry out as part of a class unit.
• record their ideas and opinions about topics discussed in class.
• maintain a portfolio of their own work. 

Have your students create their own weblogs to...

• learn how to blog
• complete class writing assignments.
• create an ongoing portfolio of samples of their writing.
• express their opinions on topics you are studying in class.
• write comments, opinions, or questions on daily news items or issues of interest.
• discuss activities they did in class and tell what they think about them (You, the educator, can learn a lot this way!).
• write about class topics, using newly-learned vocabulary words and idioms.
• showcase their best writing pieces.

Ask your class to create a shared weblog to...

• complete project work in small groups, assigning each group a different task.
• showcase products of problem and project-based learning.
• complete a WebQuest. 

Please respond with any other ideas you have.  Chances are that your students can help you with technical support and potential uses for weblogs in their education.  How?  Because many are already blogging. 

eSchoolnews reports on educational blogging

posted October 15, 2007 | comments « back to Message Center home

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