Blogs: an eLearning Tool and Online Resource

The possibilities of an education blog are endless. Listed below are just some of many educational values of an educational blog as an online resource.

Benefits: I can’t see why you wouldn’t start an educational blog

• It’s Free. Why not set up a blog? And this time, free means free… No tricks, no hidden costs, free - for the good of education http://wediscovr.com .
• It’s Easy. The account signup process takes one minute. Posting a blog is also easy!
• It’s Fun. Post pictures, diagrams, drawings, videos, etc. All super simple.
• It’s Educational. A new spin on a traditional assignment, get students excited about learning again! Students thrive when given the responsibility to manage their blog and keep it up to date.
• It’s Publishing. A blog allows students to learn and truly understand the roles of publishing process. Assign a reporter, a writer, a designer, an editor and a publisher, promoting team work. Students of all ages and levels can benefit from this experience.
• It’s Promotional. In this day and age, public opinion of schools is very important.  Promoting the work of the students via the internet
• It’s Global. All material is online and accessable world-wide. Students can show the family overseas, interstate, or round the corner. All they need is the address.
• It Lasts Forever. Just as students love seeing their painting hanging on the wall, they get the same satisfaction seeing their work online. Only the blog will not be taken down at the end of the year, and will remain online forever!
• Educate the world! As soon as you publish a post on your blog, it is immediately available to the whole world. All blogs also appear in the google search engine. Students, teachers or the general public may stumble upon your blog, and take something from it.

Ideas: Not sure where to start with your educational blog ?

These are just some ideas that you may find both useful and educational for starting a blog.

• Start a class blog - Each week the teacher can write an entry to keep the parents informed of what the students have been studying each week, even publishing work each week. Even giving a student the responsibility to keep the blog updated teaches them.
• Start a school blog - Keep parents and students, both current and prospective abreast of the latest happenings at your school. A blog about your school is a great promotional tool.
• Publish your experiments on the internet - not only does it give the students experience in creating web pages and publishable content, it may just give another teacher or student some ideas to help them with their own learning. A blog would be perfect for this where they can create a new post each day with their observations, measurements photos or videos.
• Get students to work in teams with a reporter, a writer, a designer, an editor and a publisher. This can be combined with any of the other ideas, to encourage and promote teamwork and responsibility.
• Take photos/scans of students artwork, what better way to display and archive and watch the progress of a childs work.

How - 3 simple steps to start an educational blog.

Simple steps:

1. Go to http://wediscovr.com to get your free educational blog.
2. Enter your email address, and the name of the blog (You can setup each student as a user of the blog if you like).
3. Blog away !

Happy Blogging !

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5 Common Misconceptions about eLearning and online education

1. eLearning is going to replace traditional education and teaching methods

The most common belief of those not in the know, is that eLearning is new and fundamentally different from regular learning.  This could not be further from the truth, at least in the foreseeable future. The ‘e’ in eLearning tends to scare off many educators, especially those who are not computer savvy. eLearning is just the next step in the evolution of education, in fact it encompasses a whole range of ideas that combine the best of what teachers have been doing for hundreds of years, with the benefits of computers, the internet and new technologies. eLearning is already deeply seeded in many educational institutions around the world, yet we have barely scratched the surface of its true potential.

2. Students need face to face teaching to learn

Of course not all situations are best served by eLearning, but the notion that face to face learning is always going to be superior is a myth that needs to be dispelled. As students are connected to the internet and technology at increasingly younger ages, their ability to learn via these mediums increases at an exponential rate. Unfortunately educators are often unable to keep up with these technologies especially realizing the possibilities and potentials that they can bring. These gaps between the educators and students leave a whole world of missed potential for the ever increasing population of students who have adapted their way thinking and learning to revolve around technology.

3. eLearning is limited to older students and adults

All levels of teaching and learning can benefit from eLearning provided it is tailored to fit the student’s age and the desired outcomes.  Younger students respond particularly well to websites, interactive games, and other multimedia stimulus. These websites that allow younger students to explore and discover information in a new environment are nothing new, but the real benefits to an eLearning application like this should be found running behind the scenes. The ability for the teacher to access reports that track the students movements  and progress through the website, allow them to gain a new insight into how a student is achieving and what stimulus’s they best respond to.

4. eLearning has been around for ages

Whist yes it is true that eLearning has been around in various forms for many years, the idea eLearning must continually being looked at, evolved and looked at again. This idea can be easily demonstrated:

• Interactive maths game (1995)
• Interactive maths game that is customizable to best suit the individual (2000)
• Interactive maths games that automatically evolves in difficulty based on the answers of the student. (2004)
• Interactive maths game that automatically evolves the style of learning based on the answers of the student. (2009)
• Can you imagine the next step ?? (2010?)

5. Teachers should be producing eLearning solutions

Teachers are trained in teaching and methods of teaching. Whilst many educators think they are providing eLearning for their students, they are not in the truest sense of the word. eLearning has evolved soo far in the last couple of years that it takes an highly trained individual, with the required technological skills, business skills and an intimate knowledge of the target audience (both teachers and students). Whist many teachers have produced many tools that have been useful to students, true eLearning platforms and applications require more than your average teacher to develop. You see it time and time again, where they will use technology to assist them doing what they have done for years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great start. But there are soo many possibilities, that if they could take a step back and truly understand the technology and the underlying aims of what they are trying to achieve, they would see that we have barely scratched the surface.  Unfortunately, very very few truly understand this concept.

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Welcome to my blog !

On this blog i hope to write some useful articles that relate to education in particular eLearning and the future of connected learning. We believe in the evolution of education with assistance from technology and connectivity. It is going to take the right tools, and the right people to push for change in a sometimes archaic industry.

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