Blogs Pluses and Minuses/Student Comparison

The person I will choose to compare and contrast with is fellow classmate Kimberly Pierce, simply because I experienced the most with her as we were group members (along with Brooke)and both did not know what a blog or podcast was before this class. We had heard and seen the word 'blog' several times before, but never actually new what it was until this class. It felt good to know that there was someone else that didn't know about this besides myself!


At first, the idea of blogging was a little different, but we found that it's actually not as difficult and scary as it seems. It's actually kind of fun! And as Kimberly researched the history of blogs for our podcast, she found that blogs have actually been around for quite some time; it was just new to us.

While piecing together our presentation, I found that blogs actually have many benefits. They help us, as teachers, to understand our students a little better through their writing-when they’re at home in a more comfortable setting familiar to them, their personality will just shine through their writing; They allow the students to engage with one another; They help the student to enjoy writing as a conversation and arouse their interest in learning; They allow the student to become a better writer through student and teacher critiques or comments; They help to encourage computer literacy. Blogs also help to keep the parents involved by giving them easy access to view their child’s workload and their work progress, as well as what the teacher is doing, what the teacher is teaching their child, and what the teacher expects of his/her students. Blogs also give the parent(s) an easy means to contact their child’s teacher and they can interact with other parents as well.

But just as their are many benefits of blogging, it has it's negatives to go along. There are many households that do not possess a computer or internet access, so the child will either have to go to a public library or wait until a school day. The internet can also be dangerous for children if their activity isn't monitored. But overall, the pluses outweigh the minuses.

Kimberly's blog can be viewed here.