Blogs seem like a creative way to integrate technology into the classroom. Blogs allow for a sense of ownership, thus blog owners will be more apt to take their blog, their writing, and their overall product seriously. It's a reflection of themselves. And when another internet user leaves a comment on your blog, it is quite validating of your "worth" as a blogger.
Another advantage of blogging is that readers can easily track one's progress over time. Unless blog entries are set to private (which would defeat the purpose of using them in a language classroom), readers can easily see all previous entries and contrast those earlier entries with later ones. Students and readers may be surprised by how much the blog owner has improved regarding his or her language ability.
Because blogs are easily customizable, blog owners may be more interested in maintaining them because they can add their favorite pictures, You Tube videos, polls, etc. When you are interested in something, your performance improves. And if learning doesn't seem like learning, that would seem to make this a tool worth pursuing in a K-12 environment, where motivation is often a problem.
One of the disadvantages of blogs that should be of particular concern to K-12 teachers is the element of privacy. Anything on the internet is accessible to anyone with an internet connection. If a child blogger posts information on his blog that can identify his address or other personal information, that introduces risks that parents and instructors may find unacceptable. And what about strangers leaving comments on the blogs? This could be circumvented by changing the blogs' settings so that only registered users or particular users can access the blogs or leave comments.
Maybe this is one reason why I'm not much of a K-12 kind of guy, even though I've taught children English before...
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Help Anthony win a scholarship!
My political blog has been selected as a finalist for a $2000 scholarship awarded by College Scholarships.org. But I need your help! Please visit this site and VOTE FOR ANTHONY PALMER! Please help a fellow USC and TIFLE student out! Tell your friends!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
On Blogging
Blogs have become among my favorite ways to spend my time online. The number of blogs has exploded in recent years as more and more people become connected to the internet and advances in society and technology give people new subjects about which they can write on their blogs for everyone to see.
However, one major problem with blogs is that it's hard to determine which blogs are worth reading and which ones are better left alone. I suppose a lot of this depends on what you are looking for as a reader. Are you looking for factual content? Meaningful and insightful perspectives on current events in the news? Personal stories about someone's life? Firebrand commentary?
Because blogs are not really regulated (aside from comment moderation and posting access at times), it can be hard to filter out the good sites from the bad. So that's where technology comes in yet again. Sites like Technorati and Digg allow users to see how popular certain sites are, and allow the best or most provocative sites to "go viral" and become an internet phenomenon.
Technorati scours the internet to find out how many different sites link to one individual blog, thus leading to a calculation of "authority." Sites with higher authority are then seen as a bit more popular, and therefore more credible, than sites with lower authority. My political blog has an authority of 40. That's quite validating because when I first started blogging, nobody knew who I was, nor did anybody know if what I wrote was worth reading. But my number of RSS subscribers, unique site hits, and appearances on other people's blogrolls have steadily climbed, so that means I'm doing something right!
I have more to say about that political blog, but I'll save that for a separate post.
However, one major problem with blogs is that it's hard to determine which blogs are worth reading and which ones are better left alone. I suppose a lot of this depends on what you are looking for as a reader. Are you looking for factual content? Meaningful and insightful perspectives on current events in the news? Personal stories about someone's life? Firebrand commentary?
Because blogs are not really regulated (aside from comment moderation and posting access at times), it can be hard to filter out the good sites from the bad. So that's where technology comes in yet again. Sites like Technorati and Digg allow users to see how popular certain sites are, and allow the best or most provocative sites to "go viral" and become an internet phenomenon.
Technorati scours the internet to find out how many different sites link to one individual blog, thus leading to a calculation of "authority." Sites with higher authority are then seen as a bit more popular, and therefore more credible, than sites with lower authority. My political blog has an authority of 40. That's quite validating because when I first started blogging, nobody knew who I was, nor did anybody know if what I wrote was worth reading. But my number of RSS subscribers, unique site hits, and appearances on other people's blogrolls have steadily climbed, so that means I'm doing something right!
I have more to say about that political blog, but I'll save that for a separate post.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Blogging for dollars!
My political blog has been selected as one of the three finalists for a $2000 scholarship! Apparently voting will begin on Monday (the 25th). To any TIFLE students who happen to be reading this, please go to this site and vote for me! THANK YOU!!!
Sure would be nice if I could quit my daytime job and blog for a living...
Sure would be nice if I could quit my daytime job and blog for a living...
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