Blogging as an Educational Tool

Using the blog for this class with all of the assignments and information on it has been a really easy way for me to understand what I need to do for this class. Learning how to tag posts opened my eyes as well. I think that this is a great resource for teaching and I'm excited to use it in the future in my own classrooms. Blogs are great because they leave room for comments and open communication between the teacher and student as well as the rest of the class that is quick and reliable.

Tagging is effective because it allows some easy navigation of the site that students can understand and that allows the person creating the blog to post as often as they want because it won't become too crowded if you always have the option of narrowing down what you are looking at.

Some ideas I have about using blogs in the future include posting assignments on them so that students can always go online and ask questions via blog comments that I can answer and then have available for all of the students to see so that it is like asking a question in class except that students will remember it better because it is in writing on my blog right next to the assignment. This will help clarify assignments and make it so that students don't flounder at home so much while they are trying to do new assignments, especially ones that are more difficult or detailed.

Another idea I have is that I can use blogs for announcements in class and tag them as "announcements" so that students can always see what is new in class in case they missed class that day or just need a reference to look at. It is always hard for students who are sick and miss a day or two when new announcements have been made or assignments have been explained and so this would provide a place where students can go and see what happened in class and see if any due dates have been moved or assignments have been changed.

I think a blog would be great place to post course policies as well so that students and parents a like can go online and see what the policies are at any time in case they lose a syllabus or something that was on paper.

I think involving parents in class blogs is a great idea as well. Allowing them access to see what their children are studying and what the assignments they are doing entail would help parents with children that struggle to know what needs to be done and help them more effectively.

I think blogging is a great resource and I think I will use if extensively in my future classrooms.