My Blog

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Creating a blog was definitely an experience for me as I had no idea where to begin. Once I created the blog I started to understand how it could be used as an easy and effective tool in the classroom. To help create my blog I went on Teacher Tube and watched a video called ‘Blogs in Plain English”. The video really helped me understand how to use blogs effectively and the reasons why I would use a blog.

What is a Blog?

Mario Camilleri (2008) states that the traditional definitions of a blog is of a special kind of website consisting of regular entries or posts arranged in chronological order - that is the most recent post is at the top of the main page. In my use of blog I have also found that each post can include pictures and generally contain links to other resources.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Fernette and Brock Eides research shows that blogging has a great deal of positive potential that impact upon the students. They found blogs can:

· Promote critical and analytical thinking
· Be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive and associational thinking
· Promote analogical thinking
· Be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information
· Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction
(Eide Neurolearning Blog, 2005)

When creating my Blog I thought a good way to incorporate Blogs into my classroom could be through storytelling. Not only can storytelling be used for primary school students but also for high school and even adults. Zaphiris (2008) states that storytelling does not end at childhood but continues throughout adolescences and even adulthood. Story telling fused with peer collaboration is an excellent way to improve language abilities and advanced literacy for children and adults (Ryokai et al. 2005).

I have also had a look at the websites Class Blogmeister (www.classblodmeister.com/) and Gaggle Blogs (http://www.gaggle.net/) as they are an excellent tool to use with students. These blogs are specifically set up for classrooms as it mandates teacher supervision; this is only if parents or teachers are concerned with students’ blogs being public.

References

Camilleri, M (2008) Blogs: Council of Europe, Austria

Eides, F & Eides, B (2005) Eide Neurolearning Blog: Accessed on the 30th July 2009; http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/brain-of-blogger.html

Richardson, W (2008) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms: Corwin Press, California.

Teacher Tube (2009) Blogs in Plain English: Accessed on the 30th July 2009; http://teachertube.com/.Zaphiris, D & Ang, C (2008) Human Computer Interaction: IGI Global, United State of America.