Blogs in Education

1) How can you see blogs being used in a F2F class as well as an online course?

I can see blogs being used to communicate general information to assist students in completing weekly assignments. When an instructor posts comments to the blog, all students can go see an example of a math problem for solution, a sample summary assignment, and so on to help them feel more confident in doing their own assignment.

2) What are the benefits of using a blog over another medium?

The greatest benefit I see of using a blog over another medium is that it can be publically viewed. When we post information in Blackboard or send information via email, the only people who can view these items are those who are registered for the class. I have had occasions where support personnel wanted to help a student of mine, and they could not access the information. For example, I had one student last semester who had a counselor who was trying to assist him with his first college class, and I had to manually send everything to this counselor so they could help the studnet. If it had been in a blog, the counselor could have followed the information remotely without needing my assistance. Furthermore, when the information can be viewed by anyone, potential students can likely find it and get an idea whether they want to take the class.

3) What are the challenges of using a blog in education? Similarly, I believe the public viewing capability can be a challenge. When someone finds a public blog, they can also log in and create havoc with unwanted comments. These are all choices we need to make as educators.