Using Social Media

Blogging

Using Social Media: Blogging

What is a blog?

Blogs (web logs) can be considered as online shared journals. They are a chronological collection of personal commentary and links.

They also allow for more personal

views, this is why many institutions

and companies own both a

website and a blog.

The chronological ordering of

posts make it a nice medium to

provide updates and inform

readers of the latest news.

Blog or website?

The difference between a

blog and a website is that

websites are static and

only allow for one-way

communication whereas

blogs are updated regularly

and encourage

discussion between

bloggers.

Why blog?

Blogs encourage reflection and

discussion and thus allow for

personal and collaborative use and

a deeper understanding of a given

subject or topic. It is easy to see

their potential in enriching

students’ educational experience.

Because blogs are easy to use

and…

Using Blogs in Teaching and Learning

Using Social Media: Blogging

Want to be an expert in blogging?

LTI runs training sessions on blogs and writing for blogs. .

Go on the training system to find out more

“Blogs offer students, faculty, staff, and others a high level of autonomy while creating a

new opportunity for interaction with peers. Blogs provide a forum for discussion that goes

beyond coursework to include culture, politics, and other areas of personal exploration.

Students often learn as much from each other as from instructors or textbooks, and blogs

offer another mechanism for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and acquisition.”

Educause

Ways to use blogs in class (adapted from educatorstechnology.com)

❶ Provide further assignments for students to work on

❷ Get students to do their writing assignments in the form of reflective blog posts.

Encourage them to post comments on each others postings

❸ Use blogs for classroom projects where students can include videos, clips,

audio, text and images

❹ Teachers can create a specific section just for website links and references to

other interesting content online.

❺ Challenge your students to write, record and post tutorials about certain

concepts of things you teach them

❻ Use a section in your blog for course news

❼ Post weekly challenges that require your students to think creatively and

critically.

❽ Ask students to post their answers on the blog then discuss the solutions in

class. This will tremendously improve their problem-solving skills.

More information: blogs.lse/ac/uk/lti

lti.support@lse.ac.uk