THE BLOG


A blog is a publication mechanism, like a journal or bulletin. Blogs can promote open dialogue and encourage community building in which both the bloggers and commenters exchange opinions, ideas, and attitudes. Teachers can use a blog to publish instructional materials that the students can access to and where the students can make comments.





HOW TO USE FOR TEACHING



As a teacher, I can use a blog to publish instructional materials that the students can access to and where the students can make comments. The tasks should be done using blogs (i.e., publishing articles and sharing them with other students). While the students develop their own blogs, I can observe and monitor the students' progress, and identify the learning needs that have not been considered (e.g., students may directly or indirectly express their doubts on blogs). The blog can offer me a hyper textual and multimedia content that supports all types of multimedia files (text, image, video ...) and allows links to all types of documents and websites. They are, therefore, very useful tools appropriate for students to develop expression skills. The Blog, also, allows me the exchange of ideas and different levels in the user role, the possibility of sharing the management of a blog, together with the access from any place, allows the tool to transcend the classroom space. These are some of the characteristics that can be used by a teacher.


About its device



    A blog can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. One early blog was wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and Eye Tap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as surveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.



IMPORTANCE OF USING THIS TOOL


The use of the blog has become a very useful tool in the field of teaching, because it allows constructivist learning, an informal channel of communication between the teacher and the student, giving the student the opportunity to experiment with their own learning.
If we consider that our students are currently "digital natives", since they belong to the Internet era, that our world is constantly revolving around technology, that both reading and writing are the basis of education and an indispensable requirement in any subject, an educational blog is a space in which teachers and students can collect and produce information as part of a teaching - learning process.



REFERENCES


Onrubia, J. (2005, Febrero). Aprender y enseñar en entornos virtuales: actividad conjunta, ayuda pedagógica y construcción del conocimiento. RED. Revista de Educación a Distancia, número monográfico II. Retrieved from: http://www.um.es/ead/red/M2/conferencia_onrubia.pdf

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