Pros and Cons to Blogging

There are a lot of pros and cons to using Blogs in the classroom.  In my opinion, the advantages of using blogs in the classroom far outweigh the disadvantages.  Blogs can be used in a variety of creative ways.  

One of the benefits of using blogs in the classroom is that it encourages class participation and helps facilitate classroom discussion.  Students who are normally shy in class are given a forum in which they could voice their opinion.  Another great benefit of using blogs in class is that allows students to practice their writing skills and improve upon them.  And because their posts will be seen by everyone in the class, it allows students to really give much thought into what they are writing.  Blogs also allow students the opportunity to expand their knowledge by reading the posts of other students.  It gives them an opportunity to fill in the blanks of what they do not know by reading the content posted by other students.  The last major benefit of using blogs in the classroom is that it gives students a chance to collaborate on projects with their group members.  

There are some disadvantages to using blogs.  It can be quite time consuming for the teachers to set up and maintain the blogs.  It will require teachers extra time to update the blogs and monitor the posts made by the students.  While it may be time consuming, I still feel that there can still be worthwhile discussions to be had.  Some critics may state that discussions in blogs maybe hard to follow because some students might reply in their individual blogs rather on the main blog.  This disjointed conversation could easily be remedied by requiring the posts be answered on the one blog rather than several.  

While there are some disadvantages to blogging, I feel that it is an invaluable tool.  The benefits of blogging far outweigh the disadvantages and with proper instruction and time allotted, students can have a fruitful discussion and positive experience with blogging. 

First Blog Post

I have never used Blogger.com to create blogs before but I found the experience to be quite positive.  The templates and designs are pleasing to the eye and for the most part very intuitive and user friendly.  I like the gadgets function which allows me to post different kinds of information that I want.  I am a novice when it comes to setting up blogs as my previous one was a very basic one.  I look forward to blogging with everyone and be inspired by your blogs as well.