Use of b;ogs in Education

Blogs in Education
Martha Mays
EDU255
02/14/10

1) How can you see blogs being used in a F2F class as well as an online course?

Blogs can be used to give the teacher immediate feedback on their success in getting their lesson across successfully. If some students are confused or if the pace is too quick, or too slow, the teacher can adapt to the needs of his students.

Blogs can be used for assignments, as a means for the teacher to assess what level of computer skill/savvy her students possess. Often, for example, the teacher may have older students who are not very computer knowledgeable.

For an online class, the teacher is also able to access how the students are disseminating the assignments. Is the workload too much or too little, for example, or are the assignments poorly explained, leaving the student to ask, “What am I supposed to be doing?”

2) What are the benefits of using a blog over another medium?
Up-to-date feedback, so the teaching methods can be customized to illicit the optimum learning for the students. Other methods could include email or F2F meeting, but our society has become so needy for immediate gratification that a blog may be the best method of communication.

2) What are the challenges of using a blog in education?

In a learning environment like YC, teachers are often working with “older” students who may lack the technological ability to us all that the Internet and computers have to offer. This can create a level of frustration that may turn a “returning” older student off to pursuing a new subject or even a degree by giving the sense the “technology has passed me by” or the “old dog, new tricks” theory of evolution with returning students.