Discussion 1: Blogging Education

          Blogs are parts of Web 2.0 technologies. There are several types of blogs such as personal, business, and organization.  Blogging is not new in education. However, educators utilize blog differently. For examples, teachers may use blogs as a teaching and learning tool while administrators and staff may use blogs as communication and marketing tools. It is undeniable that blogs have a great impact in education. Examples of positive impact of blogging in education include:

•  Easy to use
• Grate tool for document learning process
• Fostering reflective analytical, and critical thinking,
• Encouraging collaboration among students
• Knowledge sharing
• Improving writing competency
•  Easy access anytime anywhere

          As an educator, I believe time and effort are the most challenging of blogging in education. If the class is small, it is easier for teachers to manage all reading and giving feedback. However, it is time consuming for planning, reading, providing feedback, and grading for the larger class. It is difficult for students to improve their thinking and writing competency if they don’t receive the feedback in time.

For students, the following are my thought for their challenges.

• Technological problems – even though blog is easy to use, some students may not feel comfortable with or resist in using new technology,

• Quality and adequacy of blog -- although the use of blogging in education increase students’ writing competency, some students are still struggle with writing skills. Thus, some of their comments to other bloggers may be poor and too short,

•  Fear to participate – some students may not feel comfortable to portray their ideas in the discussion or comments,

• Privacy problems – some students may include some private information and sometimes inappropriate information in their blog entry.

          Currently, I have integrated blogs into Entrepreneurship in Apparel and Interiors. I utilized blogs as:

•  Learning resources—I required to read IT 644 blogfolio on how to create blog or use other technology,
• Reading assignment– I required my students to discuss class reading materials in their blog,
•  Journal – I required my students to reflect upon class activities and assignment in their blog,
•  Peer evaluation assignment–I required my students to comment on other classmate blogs. 

          In the future, I plan to require my students to document their learning through blogfolio and giving constructive feedback through blog critique.