Blogs in Education

You would think that a search engine is a search engine no matter what company owns it. However, when I searched for the words "Educational Blogs" a few different items came up. When I used Google I got sites that organized lists of different blogs on education and sites that listed other blogs that educators use. When I used Yahoo I got one of the same exact sites that Google gave me and one that was a book review written by a teacher on some book on technology. When I went to ask.com it came up with a site that offered free web blogs for educators and also there was another site that had blogs written by teachers.

Now the search engines may produce different websites to visit but what those website have to offer is really pretty interesting. One blog type website is actually used as a school's website and there is even a place for all the teachers to have a space for online discussions and an in depth look at that class. Also the principal has a place to post notes and comments about things that are going on in the classroom. Also, there is a blog site that offers free blogs for students so they can discuss many topics online with other students. Another cool feature that blogs have been used with are as informational websites that provide help with blogs in the classroom. These helpful hints can really help educators to learn all about blogs and how to optimize use in the classroom.

Another fascinating technical feature is the RSS reader and reader aggregators which provide news updates right into the website. It would be helpful to have news updates on a class website so that students can stay up on their news breaks all around the world. Having a news reader which gives the students an update on the news they can then write a blog about their opinions of the world and current events. Some bad things about having a RSS reader is that you need to have good Internet hook ups and computer access, which can be a problem for some schools. Also a news update may not be appropriate for all age groups because it might be to advanced for them. On the other hand RSS readers can help students to form political opinions and compassion for people around the world. Also blogs allow students to have discussions that are less likely to get out of hand, allowing children to express themselves freely.