Usage of Blogs in Education

Blogs when used in Education give rise to an increase in student interest and ownership in learning by promoting creative, intuitive, associational and analogical thinking. They provide opportunities for diverse perspectives by offering a combination of solitary and social interaction thereby encouraging collaborative learning. Not only this, they encourage students reflective learning through their exposure to innovative technology aid in effective e-learning. Lastly, they enhance student learning through use of multimedia (audio, visual).

Which subjects to include and why?

The subjects that can be taught through blogs are:

1.  Programming languages.
2.  Literature
3.  Philosophy
4.  Environmental sciences (climate changes/energy conservation/global warming)
5.  History.
6.  Journalism.
7.  Alternative Medicine.
8.  Current research in any medicine (or any other such field).
9.  Innovative experiments in science.
10. How to do literature review?

Things to look out for while selecting any subject are that the subject should be exhaustive and descriptive. There could be multiple view points on the same topic. There is scope for learning through debate/discussion. There could be collaborative group work which could help in understanding the chosen topic. The topic should be reflective.

Students benefit from learning through a blog because they would get instructional tips on the subject. They would get instant feedback from the teacher as well as their peers. It is basically a knowledge management tool for their own learning and studies. The web inspires many students to take their work more seriously and to engage in a level of reflection about their work that is otherwise rare-due to public access on WWW. People in different locations get a chance to share computer screens/doc and audio transmissions as well. 

Last but not the least, an instructor can use a blog effectively because they can assess the debates taking place on the blog and thus address the misconceptions if any, that the students may have. They can cater to a number of students living at different places at the same time. They can give instant feedback to the students and watch the feedback given by the rest of the students. They can have live discussions and provide a number of resources to all the students at the same time. They can also have mentors from different institutes to offer advice on how to improve the session and thus guide the students effectively. For the students of Computing and information technology (C&IT), using the traditional methods, it can be hard to determine if the students have really understood the techniques and resources taught and that they have been able to apply them independently. Using a blog for formative assessment allowed a more supportive approach to teaching. In brief, the learning process is a social co-construction of meaning through conversion. It is primararily constructive and cooperative. When joining in conversions, individuals are required to articulate their view points and to reflect on the perspectives provided but other participants as well as their own. Collaborative discussions are primararily conversational and of course cooperative in nature with individuals contributing to the discussion. What is more significant about this combination of learning process is the level of ownership that the students feel when they are in control of the discussion.