Student-centered blogging
Student-centered learning proved to be an effective approach that allows adjusting the curriculum to students’ needs and possibilities and unleashing their potential. Thanks to it, the educational system is able to meet modern requirements without being changed completely, which demands a lot of resources. Students get a possibility to construct the shape of knowledge they get, which makes the process more interesting. And one of the most effective methods for implementing student-centered learning is blogging.
Advantages of student-centered blogging
1.Improving writing performance
Blogging contributes to improving writing performance in general, helping to solve issues with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Thanks to it, they also learn how to formulate thoughts and make generalizations. The more practice they have, the better results they show. Students who write a lot, get used to grasping and analyzing information faster.
Because it is not mandatory, blogging also teaches students to express their thoughts in an informal style, as they often have difficulties with structuring the elements of the text and words usage when not using a usual template.
2.Interaction between students
Students who write and read blogs have more opportunities to communicate and find out about more about each other’s interests, have enough time and opportunities to process information at their own pace, and express their ideas and opinions. This makes possible richer debates between students who usually spend little time together offline.
3.Learning online communication rules
A blogging platform can be a sandbox where students learn online communication rules, like the the need to be polite, respect other people's opinions and share personal information carefully. Also, usually introverted students can become more willing to actively participate in discussions.
Potential problems
Although blogging proved to help students develop writing skills as well as motivation and self-efficacy, there are several issues that remain unsolved. For example, one of them is related to students' engagement and enthusiasm that tends to wear off over time. To keep it on the same level, students can be involved in different blogging challenges.
Examples of blogging platforms for students
- 1. Edublogs
- 2. Weebly for education
- 3. Kidblog
- 4. Class Blogmeister
- 5. 21Classes