Blogs
According to Technorati, the blog count reached 80 million last year. Even though a quarter of them are most likely bot-created spam blogs, the quantity of content ‘in the cloud’ is still staggering. Blogs give everyone a voice to communicate, teach, spout opinions, learn and network. And with RSS technology, blog posts are quickly pushed to subscribers for easy access.
Opportunity Statement
While Blogs are hardly new, their journey into formal learning environments (such as this one) is still quite rare. With the launch of the WordPress LMS this year a broader set of learning-specific venture opportunities will be possible.
Prediction Source(s):
Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
Kent Jamieson 11:11 am on September 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I feel like i’m hogging the comment sections right now, but blogs have been – and always will be – instrumental in my class. Attached to our WordPress class website – which allows for students, parents, fellow teachers the opportunity to see ‘what’s happening in the class’ – blogs have given my students an outlet to express themselves, whether they’re in class or not. My introverted students enjoy the fact that they don’t need to be overtly social in class, and it also allows them to participate in discussions they would normally shy away from. Blogs….good.
Jonathan 12:34 am on September 8, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Blogs are the new journals. But they are so much more than journals. They turn the audience from just being the teacher to the world. It provides the authentic audience that was missing from many of the paper tasks given to students. Blogs extend the classroom and become the bulletin boards of the classroom in WWW format. Too many good things come out of blogs for me to turn away from this one.
jenbarker 11:20 pm on September 8, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I would love to examine blogs in more depth. I think their value as ‘learning or e-portfolios’ is just beginning to unfold. Many teachers, including myself have been using blogs for students individual writing. This year I plan to try to have my students document their mathematical understandings through creating digital media (Voice Threads, Podcasts, etc) that they can add to their blogs. All subject areas can be represented on blogs as well as a component on assessment. I am interested in the idea of having student blog that would follow the student from K – Grade 7… no more paper report cards that get lost… everything in one place. As Kent mentioned I also agree that blogs provide a great format for communicating with parents, students, and the general public.
longworth 10:44 am on September 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I believe there is a lot of opportunity to help the students develop sound literacy practices using blogs. I also enjoy the concept of the public assisting the responses to the blogs (kind of like peer editing but on a bigger scale).