Yesterday, The Australian had an article on the educational blogs site edublogs.org. The site is run by Jeff Farmer, and is mainly aimed at giving teachers and other educational professionals a place to write about their profession or to communicate with their classes. Another similar site that was recently in the news is Australian Edubloggers, a directory of educational blogs.
I believe that students can benefit a lot from educational blogs and wikis that allow students to communicate with each other and their teachers. These benefits apply all the way from primary to university students and beyond. One major advantage is the ability to see how other students think about a particular subject or problem — students who may be from other classes, schools, states or countries, or even from past years. This idea can be extended; for example, students across the world could work together on projects, teaching them how to cooperate with people who may have very different backgrounds and ways of thinking. In a similar vein, students would have the chance to learn research skills using material (that is, the blogs of other students) at levels closer to their own.
Another advantage is that students learn how to express their ideas publicly, without the anxiety or formalness involved in public speaking. This is particularly important when a student''s ideas may only be half-formed, or when they are worried their ideas may be wrong. Regular blog (or comment) writing can give a student the confidence to explore ideas, rather than abandoning them too early. An added advantage of writing publicly is that student''s can get feedback on these ideas from other students and perhaps other teachers.
I do, however, see some potential problems with blogs in education. The first is participation: how to get students involved. Fortunately, teachers are in the happy position of being able to make participation count towards assessment . On the downside, this can often produce half-hearted participation.
There are also other problems. In the case of primary and secondary school students, there is the issue of a student''s safety. I think this can be dealt with by making sure students are anonymous to everyone outside their classes, and by keeping all external discussions completely public. Then there is the problem of plagiarism and the related problem of getting students to think for themselves. This is perhaps something that is best handled by in-class activities.
One problem that blogs may make much worse is hurting the confidence of struggling students. When all the students of a class are working on things that every other student can see, competitive instincts kick in. For students falling behind in this competition, the student will likely lose interest or will convince themselves that trying to doing well is somehow embarrassing or undesirable. (An issue related to the current debate over school report cards.) Right now, I simply don''t know how teachers can counter this problem. (But I''d be interested to know if you have any ideas.)
Overall, I believe that blogs and wikis can help students a great deal, particularly curious students who lack the opportunity to explore ideas taught in class and students who find it difficult to express and explain themselves.
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