4.1 Blogs and Blogging

Blogs (short for Weblogs) give you an opportunity to learn, to share and to engage in a conversation. People blog about their work, families, hobbies, favourite sports team and more. Blogs provide an opportunity to reflect on what you’re working such as your research or classes you’re teaching (or taking). They allow you to share resources and pose questions. Through comments you can provide feedback bloggers or receive it from others on your own blog. 

 

Blogs can also be useful in helping students to improve their communication skills by writing regularly about work their doing in your class from article or book reviews to their experience working as a member of a team on a project. 

 

Kathy Cassidy Links to an external site., a grade one teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan has been blogging, and had her students blogging for a number of years. She will be our guest for the Google Hangout this will and a discussion forum has been set up where you can post your questions for Kathy. You can also tweet questions using the course hasthtag #ilt_usask Links to an external site.. We will make sure that Kathy sees your questions so that she can respond during the live Google Hangout.

 

In his 2004 article Educational Blogging Links to an external site., Stephen Downes said this about student blogging (it applies to all bloggers really):

 

 "Blogging is about, first, reading. but more important, it is about reading what is of interest to you; your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read - reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting. If a student has nothing to blog about, it is not because he or she has nothing to write about or has a boring life. It is because the student has not yet stretched out to the larger world, has not yet learned to meaningfully engage in a community. For blogging in education to be a success, this first must be embraced and encouraged."