Module 12: Online writing for students and teachers

I have always loved blogs because of their ease of use, and the wonderful opportunities they offer....Ok, it has got some disadvantages. For example, the older posts are not visible on the home page, but by means of tags, you can access all the related information about a particular topic.

Thanks to blogs, we have all become news reporters. Each and every one of us can have their own version of any news, and make sure that our views are accessible to others, only if they are interested in what we think of course :)

Because people can comment on material on a blog, a blog is also a discussion and interaction forum. We have got a lot to learn from each other, and a blog provides a sharing and learning platform for us.

Another advantage is that we can subscribe to a blog, and get all the updates instantly without wasting time to visit the blog on a regular basis. In addition, people can keep their blog strictly personal and use it as a diary. A further advantage is that pictures, videos, or audio files can all be uploaded, which makes blogs very versatile.

Another feature of blogs is their collaborative nature. Blogs allow 'comments by other people who are interested in this topic'. Through this feature, students and teachers can contribute to each other's learning, and construct knowledge together, which is the basis of social-constructivist approaches. A further advantage of this feature for the students is that they practise and therefore improve their writing skills. As for the teachers, they can monitor the progress of their students, and observe the problems they are having with the target language. This feature has one major disadvantage though. Sometimes, the comment may be irrelevant, culturally, personally, or socially insensitive, or plain rude towards certain individuals. The solution: The owner of the blog should have the power to monitor all the posts, and allow a post to be published then.

Finally, what does the ability to publish freely to the Web mean for our students? Through blogs, students are opening themselves up to the whole world. The sense of purpose, relevance, but most importantly audience will develop, and as a result they will try to make use of all their language resources and end up developing their writing skills.

Long live blogs!!