The Role of Blogging and Microbloging in Classroom

To tell the truth when thinking about  blogging and especially microblogging for using  learning purposes,as developing tools of various skills  I was a little bit in doubt as I thought that they could be distractful indeed and don`t serve to their purpose. However by listening to Will Richardson lectures I really got many valuable ideas as to how blogs and so called micro blogs can successfully and usefully be used for educational purposes  and now I am more than confident that blogging and microblogging have way more positive than negative sides. 

As all kinds of networking blogging and microblogging are great tools for collaboration/ network building.

Students  as well as teachers from all of the world are building a network/ a learning space where everyone is free to share his/her ideas, experience, needs and interests. So those comments and thoughts are really  challenging, as they are different from those of the traditional teacher`s, they are enhancing your thinking by making you to think more broadly, creatively and critically. People from all around the world are becoming your teachers and you are becoming a part of a great family of network creators. Microblogging isn`t totally blogging but still it is a collaboration,  communication, negotiation.

When you are using a blog as a learning/teaching space, when you are assigning your students to reflect in a blog on something they  have just read, watched or experienced, you are making them more interested as they are creating something for more real audience. So this is much more motivating for them than when they are being assessed by one or few lecturers inside university walls. They are making efforts and spending lots of time to make their blogs more interesting useful for other users also.

Of course blogging and microblogging first of all are much more useful for developing writing/ reading skills. As Richardson states blogging starts with reading, you are getting the insides of how to organize your reading appropriately nowadays when there is such a great flow of information and you have to think what`s necessary to read and whats not. As a writer you are developing your right brain,as mentioned Richardson, that`s to say your creative,reflective side. You are becoming much more skilled by every blog, by every tweet or status if you are trying to say something that really matter.

Blogging and microblooging are kind of your learning  portfolio where you can see your own learning and development.

As a teacher I would say that I would like to use these tools for learning/teaching purposes. I am not yet sure as how my students would meet this fact, but I think that most of the replies would be positiver. I would  say that I myself appreciate social networking much as I can share my ideas, my peers/friends share theirs, as well as many useful links,sites, blogs. I can learn from everyone and that`s simply great. This is what everyone should realize when thinking of blogging/microblogging.