Week 14 post-Pluses and Minuses of Blogging

I chose Lynda's blog for this assignment.  I enjoyed her point of view on certain topics.  I could almost imagine her talking to me through the blog.  She was very informal and laid back when she wrote about the topics covered.  This laid back attitude made her blog an easy read.   I took the time to look at two other student blogs and when I compared all four of ours it was interesting to see how we thought alike and at the same time we were completely different.  

There are many pluses to using blogging in the classroom.  I want to focus on 3 major pluses.  In reading Lynda's  blog I could see right off the bat one of the pluses of blogging in the classroom.  I was able to see exactly what she had learned through doing her assignment and posting to her blog.  It is homework.  Blogs are very beneficial when it comes time to check certain  homework assignments.  Students would know the deadline and that deadline would have to be met.  No more excuses like,"I put it on your desk yesterday", or "I found it on the floor next to the basket, and you never graded it".  The excuses that drive me crazy would be no more.  So I guess Plus #1 would be student accountability.  A classroom blog would hold the students accountable on a whole new level.  Plus #2 is the efficiency of blogging.  Less paper would be used, and teacher's would have all students assignments at her fingertips.  There would be no more huge stacks of papers to grade.  All the teacher would need is her computer and the Internet.  We have used hardly any paper in EDM 310 and Mrs. Averitt was able to check our homework at her leisure.  Plus #3 about blogging in the classroom is the fact that everyone is entitled to voice their own opinion.  Lynda was able to share what Randy Pausch's last lecture meant to her at this stage in her life, and I really enjoyed reading about what she thought.  It helped me know her better.  Blogging helps us get to know one another without even talking.

Since I mentioned 3 pluses in the above paragraph I will list 3 minuses in the following paragraph.  Minus #1 would be the inability of a teacher being able to ensure that each student is doing his or her own posts.  Anyone could log on and write a post for me and no one would be the wiser (not that I am guilty of this, but it could happen).  I knew of a person in college that would write papers for people and this person made a good bit of money.  So why would it be any different in the age of technology.  Minus #2  is that the information that is posted to the blog is out there and pretty much anyone can read it.  That is a little worrisome when it comes to younger students.  Parents would have access to student work and could compare and question certain aspects of your assignments.  The last minus I think is worth mentioning is the students' access to the Internet.  It seems that everyone is on-line these days, but teachers can not assume that every student has access to the Internet or even to a computer at home.  Probably 95% of students do have access, but a teacher has to consider the other 5% that does not have access.  

Blogging offers so many options to teachers.  It is a teacher's responsibility to make sure how blogging is used is beneficial and fair to his or her students.  There are many positive aspects to blogging and there are just as many negative aspects.  This is just the way it is.  Talented and innovative teachers are able to enhance the positives and reduce the negatives.  Over all I think that blogging is going to become a more prevalent part of the classroom.