What is a blog? Well, this is a tool which can help you become anything you want to be. It’s your virtual home where you can set things up according to your tastes. Although they are just websites, the only difference between a traditional site and a blog is that blogs are frequently updated. Also, they allow for constant interaction through comments.
With that said, here, we are going to unpack the importance of blogging in the life of a student and even teachers. Hopefully, in the end, you’ll see why blogging is in existence even as other online tools come and go. Have a look!
You Own Your Content
There are several online platforms where you can post your thoughts and ideas like social media websites. The sad fact is that anything can happen on such sites, for example, some sites like Facebook might close or even get suspended.
With such uncertainty, the safest thing to do is to have a place where you post all your ideas. Remember to pick a friendly export blogging platform. Here are some suitable examples:
WordPress
Edublogs
Blogger
An Online Hub
What makes up a good blog post? Well, it should talk about everything that you create or find in the online and offline world. Such things could be podcasts, videos, articles, graphic designs, and links. Blogs help you maintain your virtual world adequately organized plus they are searchable.
Keeping your blog running every year is a fantastic way to track your creations, thoughts, and learning. You’ll even know how you’re progressing with your education by writing down the most important experiences.
Traditional Literacy
As a student, you can improve your writing and reading skills tremendously through blogging. However, it’s essential to understand that a boost in your literacy skills doesn’t automatically come with a simple blogging program. Instead, it needs a variation of the formula below:
Explicit Teaching + High Expectations + Regular Feedback + Authentic Motivation = Quality Writing
You’ll discover that by introducing blogging into your literacy curriculum, you also improve your engagement levels. If you’re a reluctant writer, you’ll now write with a purpose. Besides, students use blogs to ask questions such as, “who can help we write my essay online?” Even if you’re a teacher, you can use class blogs to converse and communicate with your students.
Developing New Literacies
As a teacher, you should know that a concept of being literate is slowly changing. Why? Well, there are a lot of new skills and literacies that students need to know. These include things such as:
Curation
Citizenship
Critical evaluation
Visual literacies
Problem-solving
Critical thinking
Cultural awareness
But how can you cover all of them with so little time during the day? The answer is setting up a high-quality blogging platform for your students. It’s the perfect place for developing new and traditional literacy skills authentically and progressively.
Improve Your Creativity
Blogging allows you to express your creativity. It gives you an opportunity to explain different topics uniquely. It also has aspects of problem-solving which every skilled blogger needs. Furthermore, blogging allows you to express yourself visually through headers, photography, layouts, custom designs, and themes. Remember that it’s a black canvas which you can modify into any theme you love.
Home to School Connections
A majority of families and parents enjoy using a student blog as it shows them all that’s happening in the classroom virtually. For instance, by commenting, families can follow classroom activities and see their child’s learning progress in real time. Most importantly, information published on class blogs acts as a good conversation starter in some homes.
Helps You Gain Confidence and Social Skills
Blogging allows you to showcase your talents in empathy and communication. You can transfer such capabilities into the actual world and improve how you relate to people. You’ll also learn how to be considerate and polite with others. This is through simple methods like:
Replying to blog comments from your readers
Asking questions that show how you have an interest in other people’s work
Requesting for permission before you post about another person
You Finally Have a Voice!
When you publish online instead of writing in the usual analog way, you stand a higher chance of being heard. So, you can write about your concerns, passions, and learning experiences. In doing so, you’ll feel empowered in making a change in the world, and by sharing your ideas, you’ll help your readers understand you.
Conclusion
In the business world, 81% of those living in the US trust advice and information from blogs. On the other hand, you’ll hardly find a program that offers several advantages to students like an adequately established classroom blogging platform. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s more effective than other applications and digital tools. It’s just that you can integrate almost everything into blogging!
How has blogging influenced your education as a student? For teachers, how has integrating blogs into your teaching impacted your class? Share with us below!
