Blogs versus Discussion Boards

As discussed in Shiang-Kwei Wang and Hui-Yin Hsua' s article Reflections on Using Blogs to Expand In-class Discussion, blogs can be used in many different capacities in an educational setting but one very important function can be for teacher to student or student to student communication.  Of course tools such as discussion boards have been widely used, blogs offer different and, some would argue, more useful methods of communication.  First of all discussion boards are rather limiting in that they restrict use and input to the teacher and students assigned to that class's forum, where as blogs allow for many more people to view and comment on conversations taking place on often interesting subjects.  People can continue blogs, and subsequently the conversations posted to them, after the unit has ended and allows for people to carry on the discussion without the threat of their dialog being eliminated due the course ending.  On a blog, students, teachers, and others who choose to follow the discussion have the opportunity to view the posting on an ongoing scroll format. Students can easily reference earlier comments that may spark further insight into their thoughts and ideas on the subject being talked about.  The authors point out that there are of course risks involved in posting to a public blog versus a private educational discussion board, such as the risk of posting personal information on a site that is available to a wider, and possibly undesirable, audience.  Another consequence of blogging is knowing that their writing is available to the public, so students might have stronger motivation to write well so that the quality of their writing might shine (Gary, 2003; Repman, Zinskie, &Carlson, 2005).

This blog was very insightful and gave me wonder ideas how to utilize blogging in my class.  My only concern is making the assumption that all students have ready access to the internet and know what a blog is and how to use it.  And as obvious as this may seem, this is a great way to work literacy into your classes if your content area doesn't lend itself to reading or writing.

Shiang-Kwei, Wang, and Hsua Hui-Yin. "Reflections On Using Blogs To Expand In-Class Discussion." Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning 52.3 (2008): 81-85. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Jan. 2012.   





A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.  ~Baltasar Gracián