A weblog, or blog, is a personalized website that contains a set of personal commentaries and belongs to the class of Web 2.0 tools (Schrum et. al., 2007).
Classroom blogging creates opportunities for students to practice their writing skills and thereby improve their scientific literacy skills (Schrum et. al., 2007). In addition, posting and commenting enables students to have their voices heard, develop a sense of voice, and understand concepts from another student’s perspective. Furthermore, it allows for collaboration, student-centred, constructive teaching and learning (Schrum et. al., 2007), differentiated instruction by using multiple learning styles (Sawmiller, 2010), encourages critical thinking, cognitive and metacognitive skills by requiring students to actively think and process concepts taught in school (Sawmiller, 2010). Inviting expert feedback can provide a unique educational bridge between academia and students as scientists make important experimental findings available as an accessible and interactive format, even helping students understand abstract concepts (Anthis, et al., 2008).
There are a few issues of privacy and plagiarism associated with information-sharing on the internet (DiMauro, 2009). Therefore, using blogs in a classroom requires explicit instructions, a great deal of scaffolding and, more importantly, students need to be trained to develop their metacognition (Snowman, 2009). With writing and technology as keys for student learning in science, blogs should be fundamental in the senior biology classroom (Sawmiller, 2010).
References:
Anthis, N., Batts, S., Smith, T. (2008). Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy. PLoS Biol 6(9). doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060240
DiMauro, M. (2009). Great New Technology for Teachers : Web 2.0 Definition in the Classroom [blog entry]. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/26964.aspx
Sawmiller, A. (2010) Classroom Blogging: What is the Role in Science Learning? The Clearing House, 83, 44–48, doi: 10.1080/00098650903505456
Schrum, L., Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0: new tools, new schools. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZKKQMLir_mMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Snowman, J. et al., (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Milton Qld: John Wiley & Sons.
Well written review of blogs. You have provided a detailed summary of blogs, their use in the classroom, benefits and limitations. Personally I have learnt a lot by creating a post each week as it has forced me to spend time reviewing the weeks work and researching areas that I need to learn more about. in addition, commenting on others posts allows me to appreciate a different point of view or opinion, that might in turn influence my thoughts or opinions.
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