Blogs
I believe without engulfing students with the use of ICT in the classroom, it will deprive them of their right to an inclusive education, where all student education needs are catered for. I acknowledge the potential for ICT to improve student outcomes. Therefore I aim to expose my students to quality ICT use in order to be digital natives where they have the skills to appropriately use and understand the technology in a constant changing technological world.
Not only do I believe in using ICT but also in the importance of building a community amongst learners and their parents. Therefore an ICT tool I believe that supports building a community is Weblogs. Weblogs are a fantastic tool to create and maintain an inclusive leaning environment and engage students in their learning. Weblogs provide a range of opportunities to explore, build and develop upon new skills of ICT’s in a new world of fun learning. In Richardson (2009) article on weblog learning, it explains that blogging in its truest form has a great deal of positive impact on students. Blogs encourages critical and analytical thinking; it promotes creative, intuitive, and associational thinking and is a great way to collaborate.
I believe that structured weblogs within classrooms enhance learning as it is intrusting and engaging. It is seen that weblogs are a very interesting tool to teach children the use of ICT. Teachers are seen to be using weblogs more in the classroom environment to create students assignments, set homework and update parents on students’ progress and to observe students results. Weblogs are becoming more popular with parents support and positive feedback. Mullen, and Wedrick (2008) suggests in their work that parents love the transparency and the ability to access class materials in the form of a weblog. This way the parent can easily access the class work from the comfort of their own home and if they feel necessary, ask their child to either revise work or progress onto work that hasn’t been covered yet.
Resources such as Weblogs in the classroom foundation are suitable for all learning styles. If a student is a visual learner they have all the tools necessary to be successful, similarly if the student is an auditory learner pod casts and other audio clips can be posted onto the Web log for particular student’s needs. By doing this the teacher is selecting ICT resources appropriate for student learning.
I believe that Weblogs are useful tool that should be a part of every classroom. It opens many possibilities for teachers, students and parents alike. By using Weblogs I believe students can not only collaborate with each other but also with other students across the world. The use of ICT’s in classrooms should be flowered because the list of benefits is endless. Everyone can benefit through weblogs.
References:
Mullen, R., & Wedrick, L. (2008). Avoiding the digital abysee: Getting started in the classroom with youtube, digital stories, and blogs. 66-69. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffithaccountid=14543
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, pod casts and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
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