Some Potential Problems

There are several potential problems that arise when students are assigned blogs as homework. First, many teachers experience resistance from parents who do not want their children posting on the internet. In Emily Van Noy’s classroom in Charlottesville, she solved this problem by having students make their blogs “private” so that only the teacher and other students could view them (Kajder, Bull and Van Noy, 2004). Also, she discouraged them from posting personal contact information or addresses on their blogs. In the article Technologies such as wikis in the classroom, author Steele expressed that “For those students who may not have the equipment or access to the equipment, learning would not be equal” (Steele, 2008, p. 7). He also said that for the teacher to use valuable time to instruct students on how to create a blog may not be worth the trouble since “requiring the instructors to teach these students both writing and computer skills doubles the instructor’s workload” (Steele, 2008, p. 7). As the studies and research clearly indicates, both of these claims are somewhat invalid and can be overcome. Because of the percentage of students who use the internet (shown under “Benefits of Blogging” post) it is clear that most students have access to the internet. For those who do not have internet access at home, school computers are available or teachers may collaborate with the student to develop a different assignment for them. Also, since creating a blog is simple (mine took about five minutes to set up) and since so many tutorials are available online, instructors will waste little time teaching blogging in the classroom. Blogs use is sharply increasing (see the chart in the video in the first post) and more and more teachers will likely be using this as a teaching method in the years to come. It is likely that the use of blogs in the classroom and as homework will both be used, and that it will become more and more interactive in linking students to students (internationally and nationally) and educators to students and parents.