Reading One-Blogs

I chose to read the article titled Bookmarking the World: Weblog applications in education. After the reading I realized that there is a great advantage in using Weblogs especially when relating to the field of education. Weblogs have to do with sharing information with others, such as ideas and opinions, in ways that are structured similar to a personal journal. I personally, am new to weblogs and after reading the article I became more aware of how they are used, why they are used, and what for. In specfic, weblogs can help students extend thier own ideas by relfecting upon a certain issue or what has been taught during any given class. Weblogs can create a mass amount of learning opportunties that would have never been possible without this technology. as a matter of fact, before Weblogs students may not have had a chance to respond to other students opinons or thoughts during school time. Weblogs provide an opportunity for students to log onto other students weblogs anytime, anywhere as long as he or she has internet access. Think about it...have you ever wanted to respond to something someone else said in class but didn't have enough time to because class ended? I have! Well, weblogs provide the opportunity for others to crtique Web materials, as well as other's blogs. Never before have people had an opportunity to basically have a real understanding of how other people think about specific topics and able to respond. Weblogs can be accesed by people all over the country. So, that means that people have a new opportunity to learn about new ideas and new information based on what people have on thier Weblogs. Weblogs bring about a new form of communication that had not existed before. For example, we hear about this new concept of distance education well Weblogs form a community in which people can persue independent research. Weblogs really foster that distant education relationship by providing people with "voices" associated with all different types of individuals. I have discussed how Weblogs are great advances in technology but at the same time I can see that it could cause a digital divide between individuals. I look at my Father for instance, he is in his early 60's and I feel like I am always having to teach him how to "keep up" with new technology. My Dad has just now gotten used to sending attachments with e-mails, and I am worried to even inform him of Weblogs simply because I think it would make him feel "left out" since he already feels overwhelmed by basic e-mail operations. One way to help remedy that, would be to inform my Dad of possibly some step-by-step ways to blog or writing down specfic directions to follow. I can see how some people would get this feeling of an "technology overload" which I think would definitly create a digital divide amoungst society.

I think that there is definitly a place for Weblogs in the classroom, especially in the older grades such as 3rd grade and up. I feel like at that age and up students are wanting to gain knowledge about new ways to take full advantage of technological advances. Weblogs can be created to extend lesson plans such as how students may feel or how they understand and want to know more about a specific topic. By having students use Weblogs in the classroom there is another level of classroom interaction going on. Weblogs give students opportunites to be creative, reflective, and organized. Weblogs can be used for all subject areas. For example, lets say a teacher posts a certain math problem on a blog. Students then have a chance outside of class to give thier own answer and can see how other students think when problem solving based on thier own individual answers. Students can see other students thought processes based on what is posted in the Weblog. The only real concern I have about Weblog use in the classroom is privacy. Weblogs are free to view by all people that do or don't have thier own blog accounts. There may be something controversial that is posted on blogs where a students privacy is violated. That is my main concern I have after reading the article.

The different types of classroom activites that could be enhanced by using blogs would definitly be any activity associated with writing, problem solving, and especially research. I think that students are not always motivated to write, while typing on a blog may be a better form of writing for those students. There is a huge amount of information that can be gained from Weblogs and therefore making it easier for students to conduct research of thier own. I think that Weblogs will continue to gain popularity inside and outside of the classroom. I think that over time people of all ages will be able to, and want to for that matter, to engage in Weblogs.