Pros
- Communication - Instead of using journals, you can post your thoughts and then have anyone who reads reflect on what is written. The dialogue is highly valuable and can shape learning in a fast, new direction.
- Connections - By tagging your blog, people from around the world can view and comment on the topic you are discussing. This can bring many different views that may not have been available before.
- Creativity - With the addition of multimedia such as pictures and videos, you can have a variety of elements that attract the viewer. Like this!
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| That's me! In Prague in 2003. |
Cons
- Updates - I am one who can speak to this. As an educator, it is important to keep things up to date, but it is also a HUGE challenge to keep up with everything in the classroom as well as extra efforts to make learning environment but we do everything we can, because we care.
- Interaction - While the communication is great, it is communication through the computer and not real live interaction between people. Some may argue that it doesn't matter, but I feel that there is no real substitute for live interaction between people.
Hey Jason,
ReplyDeleteYou mention some great pros and cons of blogging. Because it is such a new experience for me, it took me a while to determine whether I actually liked blogging. Similar to you, one of the things that I like is the communication aspect. You can reflect on many different topics and lessons through your blog and get feedback from people all over. For students, blogs can be beneficial for this very purpose. Even though there is no physical interaction, students can still virtually interact with others to produce ideas.
I also like that I can customize my blog so that it is personal to me. This makes my blog feel unique to me. I think this is important for students because the customization also shows their personalities.
Jessica
Hi Jason,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post on Pros and cons of blogging. Personally i like all the features that blogging promote. My only concern is that one can change other people's comments. I know that there may be a way to avoid that but generally people do not use such features.
You are correct; blogging does teach students how to showcase their personalities.
Regards,
Shawnette
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the keeping things up to date. We already have a lot regarding classroom responsibilities. I have created a discussion area in StudyWiz and am struggling to keep up with all 6 of my classes. I explained to the students that I had created that area for there use and if they needed a more immediate response from me that the needed to send me a message in StudyWiz. I created the discussion area in response to EDTC610. We read several articles regarding providing students the opportunity to communicate on a non academic level throughout the course.