Introduction
Using blogging as a way of conveying message or presenting opinions and facts has grown to become very popular in education sector. Many institutions have embraced these means, including at the public schools and tertiary colleges. Blogs can be very beneficial when we want to share important information and getting tips from colleagues, peers and other professionals. They can also be very important for disseminating information to students and keeping in touch with their parents. Educators can create blogs, monitor them, edit and make follow ups that make sure that the posts are relevant and good concerning the classroom.
Blogs to Enhance Learning
Currently, a lot of effort has been made to make the process of learning as interactive as possible. This means that the educators and their student have to get in touch as much as possible and be able to open up to each and communicate as freely s possible. Blogs just present this opportunity (Johnston, 2002, p. 56). Sometime in the classroom, student may fail to challenge teachers or present ideas that are not confident about, but when behind the screen, this information can be communicated to the teachers inform of a question or suggestion. A teacher will then respond giving the correct facts and a clarification for cases that were not correctly explained. Classroom instructions can be enhanced on blogs. Homework can be administered, notes for missed classes posted and topics for discussion boards placed on the blogs for the student and teacher to visit and address (Johnston, 2002, p. 56).
Of great importance is that the teachers have the opportunity to share among themselves including addressing specific information in exemplary classes. Teachers learn from each other the tools of teaching that worked best and issues that needed addressing for instance classroom management strategies and policy (Williams, 2004, p. 236).
Blog’s Subject Matter
Inasmuch as education has been heckled as being the greatest investment a country can make, accessing it has not been that easy. In war-torn regions, many students are out of school (Williams, 2004, p. 236). It is estimated that over 72,000 children are outside school because of conflict in the world today. The number is even larger when other causes like poverty are included. The education blog about children being out of school puts across some of the things that the government can put in place to ensure that the education objectives are met as intended (EFA Editor, 2010). Basically, education is intended to give people the life skills and relevant knowledge for survival in this world which has grown to become knowledge based economy.
According to the save the children organization, there are six major things that need to be addressed to enhance education in conflict prone areas. First is that the government need to increase the opportunity for accessing education to wider range of students (EFA Editor, 2010). This means that an education system should be able to accommodate the poor children as well and must also give opportunity to older students. This way, more people are in a position to enroll. Secondly, the education system should also give more focus on the teacher in their attempt to increase quality of the education. When teachers are well trained and have the best facilities, then education will be more successful in achieving the goals. Thirdly, education should be made meaningful to the students. This means that education should be done in the local language and applied to the real life events that will help in the relevance of it to the student. Fourth, education should be protected. Any threat to education should be resolved with relevant intervention mean for instance, conflicts, and poverty and so on (EFA Editor, 2010). Fifth, government should increase response to education when an emergency arise. Finally, financing in education should be mandatory. This means that government should subsidize it as much as possible or even make it free for every. Basically, the reason for this is that education is an investment for peace and economic development and hence very expensive to forego (Williams, 2004, p. 236).
Becoming a Blog Member
It is not easy to become a blog member as perceived by many people. However, this does not mean that achieving such a status is impossible. It is something that can be done with the right determination. The first step is to read as more about that subject of interest. This familiarizes one with blogging (Falls, 2009, para. 3). Then one can start his/her own blog which would then become his/her portfolio. One can even host personal domain. From here, one can then identify the blogs of his/her expertise and apply to be allowed to post article (Beldarrain, 2006, p. 138).
Advantages and Disadvantages of Posting International Sites with Member from Different Culture
From a positive point of view, it is very interesting to interact with people from different cultures. This brings about free expressions which easily translate into understanding when addressing certain subjects and one can make friends easily. This helps in learning how to express oneself (Falls, 2009, para. 3). One also understands how others perceived him from different culture.
On the other hand, life can be very hard when one is a blogger on an international site. This is because the information being posted could be inflammatory to others yet in own culture it’s just some good news. It is quite obvious that people understand expression based on what they believe, their way of expression and context.
Blogs a Learning Tool
One can begin a blog and begin posting articles quite easily. There are two options for this. The first is to use the free websites available depending on one’s goals and needs. Blogger.com and live journal are some of the common blog sites that can assist in designing soapbox alternatively, one can decide to host personal; domain by registering it on a service provider (Beldarrain, 2006, p, 139). You will be given an account with professional application that allows so much flexibility to customize feature.
Reference List
Beldarrain, J. (2006). Distance Education Trends: Integrating New Technologies To Foster Student Interaction And Collaboration, Distance Education, 27(2):138-153.
EFA Editor. (2010). Out Of Conflict and Into School – in Two Minutes. Web.
Falls, J. (2009). Determining The Top Education Blogs.
Johnston, C. T. (2002). Teaching With A Weblog: How To Post Student Work Online, Educational Leadership Journal, 3(4): 45-67.
Williams, B. J. (2004). Exploring the Use of Blogs as Learning Spaces in the Higher Education Sector, Australian Journal of Education Technology, 20(2): 232-247.