Blogs

The first form of cloud computing that I learnt was blogs. I must say that it was not too complicated to get going. I am still learning how to customize my site, but that is an ongoing thing. The process of blogging itself is an enjoyable one. It is a fabulous way for students to do their journaling. They can also do essay writing and have their peers comment on it, as well as have the teacher make constructive comments. Blogs also allow students to edit after the comments have been made. It is an excellent way to practice writing skills, allows for collaboration and speedy feedback.


Although blogs are in the cloud, only those who are allowed to can view it, thus allowing privacy. This means that pupils can do their personal journaling without fear that that their confidential info will become public. I stress personal journaling in my class. I was able to discover two suicidal children in two different classes by first encouraging students to write journals for me regularly, and secondly guaranteeing that no one but myself would read the journals. Sometimes, students get fed-up of writing journals in exercise books on a daily basis. They may also have spelling problems and this could lead to frustration. The introduction of blogs with spell-check, colored lettering and other choices, could go some way towards eliminating this boredom and frustration and could, on the contrary, encourage them to write longer and more regular journals/blogs. This could lead to the teacher gaining a better understanding of some of the students’ challenges whilst students become better writers.

There are so many possibilities for using blogs in my class that I think my Web 2.0 paper will focus on it.