BLOG ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

BLOG ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Achterman, D. (2006)in his article about the experiences of using blogs in teaching and learning environment at Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey as an experienced place for using blog as an educational tool said " Most students reflected that blogs are user friendly and convenient tools for publishing and sharing studies, information, updated knowledge and much more". I am completely with the writer as blog has a positive effect on the students'reading and writing skills. However,the internet access outside this university in some ares is hard. In my opinion in the recent days it has become accessible for everyone to have the internet either @ home or at school. Suppose it is not available at some students'homes he can go to the ibrary.
The article focuses on the advantages coming out from using blog in teaching and learning and mention many merits like it helps students to increase their writings skills beside it give the students an idea how to search and review, edit and take other writers' opinions. Also it is a good tool to do the homework and contributs an experience with the students of how to make citations. The article mention that the Students reported that preparing blog help them to involove in information searching and I agree with the writer in this point as a new used for the blog. He added that by using blogs student can search for the information on line and I see that is another good skill. The article mentions that "Many students (23 out of 42) thought that blogs were more convenient and cost effective tools for disseminating information than traditional methods such as using folders and printed copies which is time consuming, expensive and requires too much work in comparison to electronic way of submitting assignments such as blogs and email". I an awakward to somehow of what the remaing students said as the article did not mention.It is not a confusing tool as you can make it within minutes; it seems the writer wants to encourane everyone to have a blog and for learners he is right if he means that;as it is not a TV or comercial advertisement to win money; it is free without any charge after creating the blog page.Some students said "Publishing assignments on the web was exciting and motivating for us because they could be viewable by everyone who has access to the Internet". However, students had to be more careful in blog assignments since everyone could see each other’s works on the web". My comment on that is even students see each others' work that is good to share experience and look for the information in different ways.

Then the same article continue to mention some of the blog disadvantages like students have limitations in using the internet outside the campus but I think they can search at the library or stay after school at the campus. Another disadvatane is that blogs are not sufficient to develop more web sites, According to a few students other programs are required to add more advanced applications for the blogs such adding colors, size, picture.
However,I see most technology tools have advantages and disadvantages and blogs are one of them. Therefore, it is the role of the teacher to focus on the advantage behind using the tools, that is why we call for multimedia or using different tools to minimize the deficiency in the other tools.
In addition, as discussed in a prior study (Ray, 2006), "blogs are more convenient and cost effective tools for students in disseminating information than traditional methods such as using folders and printed copies".

In conclusion,
I can say the merits of using blogs are much more than the demirts and variation of tools is better than using one tool all the time.The advantages of using blog is as easy to use to promote writing skills of students in different societies and improve their knowledge searching and review skills as well.

References
Achterman, D. (2006). Making connections with blogs and wikis. California School Library Association Journal, 30(1), 29-31.

Denzin, N. K. (1989). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological / The Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 3(1). [viewed 6 Sept 2007]