Applications of Blogging

After reading the articles, I can see many benefits and possible applications of blogging. One major draw is that blogging is fun! Integrating blogging into the classroom can motivate and interest students. Another draw is the high degree of flexibility. Meaningful discussions can be held without the risk of certain students dominating or talking over others, and as long as students have access to a computer, they can join in the discussion at a time and place that is convenient for them.

As an aspiring science teacher, one application I considered was the use of a blog by a group to keep track of an ongoing experiment or research project. Some long-term experiments need to be checked regularly, so students could arrange a schedule of who will record results and observations at what times, and then those results and observations could be entered into the communal blog. Pictures could be included as well. The whole group would have access to that information and be able to discuss their findings and any necessary modifications to the experiment. In the end, the entire progress of their experiment and their thoughts along the way would be available for them to view, greatly facilitating the transition to a research paper, if that is the direction the assignment is heading. Also, groups would be able to view the entire process of other group's projects and learn from their work as well.

Most writing about technology occurs in the strict scientific report form, but blogging could give my students a chance to write about scientific topics in a more free-form style. A good test of how well a student understands a concept is their ability to put a clear explanation into words, so students could check their own understanding by composing blog posts on subject matter. One idea is that a student or two could be assigned publish a blog post on each subject we cover in class, explaining the concept in easy language that all of their classmates can understand.  Students could sign up to be in charge of blogging about the topics that interest them most. The rest of the class would read those posts and comment with any questions, corrections, or additions. Then, come test time, the class has already constructed a great study-guide, written in their own words, that they can easily access from any computer. Not only would the act of writing the blog posts increase their understanding, they would create a resource for review that would hopefully be more meaningful and more interesting to them than the text book. Hopefully the students would be motivated to write and research their posts well, knowing that other students would all be reading them and depending on them to further their own learning. And all this collaborative learning could occur without taking a minute of actual class time.