Blogs as tools for education

Buzz words like wikis, blogs, twitters, social networking (FaceBook and MySpace) seem to be floating around our ears all day in daily conversations to the point that sometimes we miss the simplicity of the world when they didn’t exist.

An old adage preaches that “less is more”, but the truth is that each new technology is only a tool and all of them may have a place in our instructional arsenals and the best part is that we don’t have to use them all at the same time and some of them we may never have to use some of them at all.

This blog is an attempt to simplify the concepts and pitch some practical ideas on how to use these tools in an instructional environment or as an enhancement or complement to a class.

Blogs:

By definition a blog is the contraction of the word weblog and it refers to a collection of periodical entries available on-line and maintained by an individual or a group. A blog may (or may not) include graphics, video or any other type of multimedia and it is fairly simple to create and maintain.

Blogs that are educational in nature are informally called edublogs.

Edublogs in a nutshell can be use to:

• Post pre-lecture information
• Follow up on class discussions
• Post topics for student assignments
• Post tutorials and instructional papers
• Enable students to post class journals, papers, research, reports, opinions, etc.
• Implement collaborative learning (professor-student, student-student, professor-professor)
• Any other ideas you may have (please feel free to post in the comment area any other practical applications on using a blog for education)

Blogs are chronological by nature which makes them excellent tools to follow and evaluate student progress. For example, it becomes simpler for the professor to evaluate a student if the information is posted chronologically and it is available on line and side by side compared to having to open a series of word documents to evaluate progress. Blogs are an excellent tool to offer immediate feedback to the student by making use of the comments feature without the need to email and attach documents.

Some incidental advantages to the use of blogs are:

• Motivation for the student to improve on their writing and communication style
• Access to a larger audience without cost of publishing
• The ability to be "out there" and grow your networking base or connect with other people interested in the same topics and/or potential collaborators.
• Content validation and/or getting feedback on the information or the work being published.
• Expose yourself and students to this type of technology (looks great on a resume :-)).
• Re-invent and challenge yourself as a professor to offer your content in a brand new format.

There is a world or resources and a large community of innovative educators such as yourself waiting to hear from you. If you are curious or ready to incorporate blogging to your instructional toolbox, these are some resources worth exploring:

• Vance Blogger Tutorial
  A complete step by step tutorial on how to create your blog
• Blogger.com
  Visit Blogger if you already have a gmail account and would like to start now
• EduBlogger.com
  Tons of information on blogs and other web 2.0 technology tools. EduBlogger may seem intimidating by the amount of information but it is a great resource and a great way to get connected to other educators using blogs and other technologies.
• EDTEC 700: Blogging in the classroom
  This blogs seems to have been abandoned and it is not currently maintained, but it contains lots of practical applications and ideas for the use of blogs. Make sure to visit it may just jolt your mind.

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog and I'm not a writer, however, feel fee to post your constructive feedback or collaboration and I'll be monitoring the blog to implement your suggestions.