Blogging to learn
When we think of educational content on the Internet, we either remember encyclopedias or online publications. But we have another factor coming into the picture: the onslaught of weblogs -- websites that contain dated text entries on various topics.
A web log or blog (also used as a verb, meaning to write a web log entry) can either be online newsletters, personal journals, updates on controversial issues or group discussions, among others. This, with social networking websites, has contributed to the increase of content generated in the Internet through Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
If websites exploded into the social consciousness in the late 1990s, so did blogs. As of 2007, there are more than 100 million blogs all over the world—some of them informational, some commercial, but all containing huge amounts of information.
Collaboration
When it comes to education, blogs are joined by wikis (software that lets web users edit web page content freely) and podcasts (digital media files distributed online for playback in media players, like broadcast) in the modern information gathering methods over the Internet.
All are easy to use, making the academe more than happy to utilize this method of effectively enhancing students and teachers’ learning experiences.
With the advent of less expensive and better supported ICT, students can now learn wherever they are, without necessarily having to be confined in a classroom. Mobile learning gives them access to information in blogs, online publications and educational websites, regardless of geographical barrier or financial status.
The combination of blogs, wikis, and podcasts can become a very powerful learning experience for the students’ minds—enabling learners to construct knowledge in a most dynamic way.
Education blogs
Here are some educational blogs recommended by Washington Post writer Jay Mathews, teacher and blogger Ken Bernstein and commentator Walt Gardner.
- Bridging Differences. - Written by two academicians who serve at the Steinhardt School of Education in New York. It has valuable educational insights, and quality content.
- Eduwonk. - education policy expert here often provides clear explanations on key educational issues
- Edwize. - maintained by the United Federation of Teachers in New York, with a combination of comments on educational policy and inside-the-classroom content for teachers
- Education Policy Blog. - a “multiblog” with university professors debating on technical education, with well-informed analyses and comments by Jim Horn, the Monmouth University teacher who runs the site
- Forum for Education and Democracy. – supports research, publications and projects promoting public education
- D-Ed Reckoning. - a blog on teaching and inside-the-classroom activities
- A Passion for Teaching and Opinions. - exciting inside-school content from a California basketball coach
- A Shrewdness of Apes. - an inside look on the life of a public high school teacher in the United States
For more information on education blogs, just check out Top 100 Education Blogs and Education Blogs in Yahoo. Or better yet, let’s just start one of our own and add local flavor to the academic blogging community.
Sources:
“Blog.” Retrieved June 24, 2008 from
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=BLOG
Boulos, Maged, et.al. “Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for
virtual collaborative clinical practice and education.” Retrieved June 24, 2008 from
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6920-6-41.pdf
Mathews, Jay.“Favorite Education Blogs of 2008.” Retrieved June 24, 2008 from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040700387_5.html
(Published 07 July 2008, Smart Communications, Inc.)
