Chapter 10

Differentiate blogs from diaries and traditional journals and ways they can be used to guide student learning:

Blogs are different from diaries and other conventional thought-storing mediums because they are extremely custom; blogs are a way to share thoughts with anyone who would care to read one's blog. With widgets, blogs for a certain class or group are able to be linked with each other and feeds update connected bloggers with notifications of a peer's new posting. Hyperlinks, movies, picture, audio and many other multimedia functions and elements are easily incorporated into blogs with the click of a button. Nowadays, when computers are accessible to nearly every student, blogs are a great way for teachers to post assignments, reiterate topics discussed in class, and great for posting question for both students and teachers.

I have no questions about the blog section of this chapter because I am in complete support and understanding of the blog realm. This semester was the first time that I was required to blog for two of my three classes. I was very standoffish towards the idea of being required to post my thoughts online. However, as the semester is coming to an end, blogging has been pretty helpful and I am planning to do it for most of my classes to come. Not so much in this class but in my other English class blogging has helped me achieve a higher grade. Being linked to everyone in the classroom's blog, it is very simple to navigate through blogs and compare thoughts to the subjects we are discussing. For example, some students simply recollect what happened in class and create a very helpful outline by adding links and hypertext to their blogs. These links often help those who need help understanding certain concepts or stories. Also, my friend Rio posts his audio recording of the class lecture on his blog daily; If one just so happens to play hooky, they are able to easily catch up to speed by logging in their blog and listening to an audio recording through the blogs of others. As far as my other English class, I wish that we did have blogs specifically for discussion of what was happening in class. It is important to hear the thoughts of others, and it is impossible to listen to everyone's opinion in a fifty minute class. Blogs are one of the most important tools that I will be using when I teach; they are easily made interesting and are a great way of communication between students and teachers.