Blogs and Discussion Forums
Well, just to expand on what I mentioned in class this morning. In my conception of using blogs as a teaching tool, the teacher will be the only author of the blog and students are unable to create new posts but are encouraged to post comments. I don't think that students should be allowed to create new posts (like what we are doing in this forum) because of the mess that it will cause.
In blogs, with each new post, the previous post gets pushed down, and keeping our students' mentality in mind, I would expect quite a bit of irrelevant stuff flooding the blog if we allow them to create new posts. As blogs are meant as learning tools, if the blog is flooded, then it will not be achieving its aim. Thus, if only the teacher has the power to create new posts, s/he will be able to ensure that only interesting posts are up on the blog. Students will be encouraged to respond to these posts. In this sense, the teacher is the gatekeeper, restricting discussions to what is felt to be relevant. But I should state that I do not mean that teachers should always be the gatekeepers; it is just that blogs require the existence of a gatekeeper to maintain orderliness and achieve its goal of being a learning tool.
Online forums, on the other hand, are much better suited for in-depth discussions, interaction, negotiation and collaboration. Online forums are structured into three different levels: General Areas (Eg: Chit-Chat, Politics), followed by Thread Titles (Eg: Will Henry be leaving Arsenal?, Should Ministerial Salaries be Raised?), and then the Threads themselves. In this sense, online forums have a higher tolerance for disorder and thus it can afford to have all students creating new threads. The teacher can post stuff for serious discussions in a General Area and assign another General Area for light-hearted discussions.
So I guess my point is, using blogs or online forums depend on the purpose of the teacher. If the teacher intends to provide information to students, then using a blog will be better as it is more focused than a online forum. On the other hand, online forums provide more opportunities for student interaction since they get to discuss about non-class-related stuff. Of course, it is less focused.
There are pros and cons to both tools but personally, I will go with online forums rather than blogs.
In blogs, with each new post, the previous post gets pushed down, and keeping our students' mentality in mind, I would expect quite a bit of irrelevant stuff flooding the blog if we allow them to create new posts. As blogs are meant as learning tools, if the blog is flooded, then it will not be achieving its aim. Thus, if only the teacher has the power to create new posts, s/he will be able to ensure that only interesting posts are up on the blog. Students will be encouraged to respond to these posts. In this sense, the teacher is the gatekeeper, restricting discussions to what is felt to be relevant. But I should state that I do not mean that teachers should always be the gatekeepers; it is just that blogs require the existence of a gatekeeper to maintain orderliness and achieve its goal of being a learning tool.
Online forums, on the other hand, are much better suited for in-depth discussions, interaction, negotiation and collaboration. Online forums are structured into three different levels: General Areas (Eg: Chit-Chat, Politics), followed by Thread Titles (Eg: Will Henry be leaving Arsenal?, Should Ministerial Salaries be Raised?), and then the Threads themselves. In this sense, online forums have a higher tolerance for disorder and thus it can afford to have all students creating new threads. The teacher can post stuff for serious discussions in a General Area and assign another General Area for light-hearted discussions.
So I guess my point is, using blogs or online forums depend on the purpose of the teacher. If the teacher intends to provide information to students, then using a blog will be better as it is more focused than a online forum. On the other hand, online forums provide more opportunities for student interaction since they get to discuss about non-class-related stuff. Of course, it is less focused.
There are pros and cons to both tools but personally, I will go with online forums rather than blogs.
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