Teachers Roles in Using Blogs and Integrated technology

Teachers Roles in Using Blogs and Integrated technology

One of the Articles that drew my attention about blogs is for Michaela W. Colombo, Published by Phi Delta Kappan International, Inc, 2007. when I read the article I found out that teachers can help their students these days to set up their class blogs especially after the availabllity of the required software, some of them are free. He defined the blog saying "it is a Web site that has text, audio, and video postings on a particular subject that others can share, reply, comment and get the benefits of the included materials ". Students, that the writer focused on in his article, can access the materials they study from class blogs after they leave their classes. The limitation I see here that some students do not have Internet access at home. The solution is that they can access and download blog files at the library or in school computer labs or media centers or cafe internet found now in some known places in cities.
Michaela W. Colombo said “teachers have to differentiate instruction to help all students learn high-level subject matter content academic language skills necessary to effectively communicate the material concepts”. I got benfits from his article as I already knew that students can take notes in their journals, summarize, respond and cooperate in solving the problems. The teacher can help students to engage in discussions about their work. I see that is true because we as instructors concludes through involving the students leaning become more effective.
The writer adds "Students use their journal notes to practice the language of science and give the chance to discuss links on the class blog that allow them to access advanced content" and I see that our role is to use cooperative group work and individual projects to evaluate students' understanding as well.The author tries just to give solid facts about the blog benefits without mentioning if he made a study or research on that or not. Also, he mentioned that students use the blog to practice language of science, maybe that is his field. However, blogs as we know now can be used for many other purposes in teaching languages, math, sciece ...etc.


References
Milchaela W. Colombo and Paul D. Colombo from Phi Delta Kappan,Using Seminar Blogs to Enhance Student Participation and Learning in Public Health School Classes Goldman, Rose H.; Cohen, Amy P.; Sheahan, Fred,American Journal of Public Health September 2008 v. 98 no. 9 p.1658-1663