Blogs and the Classroom

Blogs are beneficial for teachers and students.  For teachers blogs can be their reflective journal. When they look back at their past entires, they can learn from their mistakes and grow into a better teacher. Also, comments from other educators can involve into a support group  among teachers.

Another way it can help teachers is educators can post and share lessons plans. Teachers are required to be creative and current when writing lesson plans. Due to that, they might want to share ideas through blogs. A disadvantage with this is not all lessons are going to be great lessons which means you have to be careful which one you use.

Although it is beneficial from teachers it can help students in many ways.  According to the one of our readings, "blogs are an online journals". If students keep a blog, they can practice their grammar skills. The article also mentions that students write better when the writing is for a bigger audience.  A disadvantage for blog journals is  students may be self-conscious  about their writing skills. For those students, they can create a video blog instead.  Video blogs are beneficial because students can still share their thoughts with the entire world but not worry about their writing abilities. An online journal can also help them express themselves in a positive way.
,
Blogs are useful with any subject especially subjects that  require students to share their opinions. For example, in history or government classes, students can have an online debate about current or past issue in United states.

Another way you can use blogs in the classroom is you can read and comments on experts works. For example, students  can ask scientist questions or an author ideas on improving skills.


Advantages:

• Helps their writing Skills
• Enhances involvements
• Brings Modern day technology into the classroom
• instant feedback from students
• Teaches basic computer skills 
• Connects with real world experts
• Easy to start and use.

Disadvantages:  

• Depending on students' socioeconomic status, they might not have a computer at home
• it is hard to block inappropriate sites
• Constantly worrying about the safety of students.