Using Blogs to Enhance Online Learning

When I first sat down to this assignment I thought I knew exactly what blogging was...ranting and raving about your day, keeping a journal about happy times from your past, or simply informing people of upcoming events. I mean...those were the only uses I had for a blog, and it seemed to me that anything else that did not fall into this category must have a different name.

After reading the literature in preparation for the blogging assignment, I have come to realize that blogging is not simply used only to rant, journal, or inform but rather it has so many more uses, such as providing a link to a popular political topic in the media for discussion or allowing teachers to communicate with students outside of the classroom on a more individual basis.

Although I am not in the education field, I have dedicated most of my time over the last five years to teaching children and youth about sports and recreation. Currently, I am the Senior worker at a youth centre which means that I am the one who initiates and runs the programs. I am always looking for ways to use our Community Access Program computers (CAP computers) and I believe that blogging will become a very trendy program for my kids.

Some of the ways that blogging could help the kids at the youth centre is by: providing the Inuit children and youth with an avenue to practise their English reading and writing skills; allowing them to share their culture about storytelling, traditions, and life in the North with children in southern Canada and around the world; and teaching them about other technologies that is out there (i.e. podcast).

I believe that blogging will be a very beneficial tool for the children and youth that I work with at the Youth Centre. It will help them a great deal with their online learning as well as their learning in general.