Blog Post # 2

Exploring educational use of blogs in U.S. education
By Hong Wang
Summarized by Adeba Sultana

Focus:
How can a blog be used in education? “According to Ray (2006) through Wang (2208), blogs in education or EduBlogs can be used to communicate, as instructional resource, as collaborative tools and showcases for student projects. As an electronic bulletin board, an EduBlog provides a fast, efficient means of communication.” In this article Hong Wang is discussing the advantages and disadvantages of use of blogs in education. She also gives some examples of major software for creating blogs with review of some blogs. The major purpose of this article is to encourage educators to use blogs in teaching and research as a useful educational tool.

1. An overview of blogs: This section of the article basically explains what a blog is. Blog is part of the web 2.0 family and serves as a personal commentary and link. We can also think of blogs as online journals that are very easy to maintain. One of the advantages of blogs is that it allows people to share knowledge, respond to readings and create and connect. Some of the downsides of blogs are their inaccuracy of the information because they are normally produced by individuals and therefore they may be biased or inaccurate.

2. EduBlogs, usage and examples: Blogs have many uses in the education system such as communication, resource for instruction, tool for collaboration, and show case for students’ projects. Blogs are fast an efficient means of communication. Blogs motivate students to collaborate. Teachers can use blogs to post all kinds of information for the students and much more. The article mentions specific examples of how blogs can be useful in education.

Conclusion: Blogs continue to be used in larger amounts in the United States. Blogs have helped people to become active readers rather than passive recipients. Blogs enhance communication and foster critical thinking and encourage collaborative learning.


Wang, H. (2008). Exploring educational use of blogs in U.S. education. U.S.-China Education Review, 5(10), Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/42/fb/cc.pdf