We [the class] started to use this blogging system since early-mid November as an educational tool, instead of using pen and paper in class. Many different reactions to this new environment of learning were considered in our classroom. Some people actively contributed to their blog by posting and commenting necessary content as they were asked to. Others used the blog as an excuse to evade their assignments given to them by the teacher. As different problems occurred, we started to question: should we continue the use of our blogs? If you look at it, their are many positive and negative consequences to this blog. We must first analyze the different advantages and disadvantages to blogging in order for us elucidate and resolve this crisis.
Let us take a moment to review the CONS of blogging.There are two important physical effects in blogging: our eyes and our ability to type. Sitting in front of your computer screen is very unhealthy for your eyes. Your vision will start to get blurry, and the next thing you know, you're wearing glasses. Computers can also produce intense headaches, dry eyes, and changes in color perception. This link will fill you in about how computers affect you, as well as solutions to those problems.
Typing, in my opinion, can be either a con OR a pro. Some people are insanely fast at typing, while others type at about two words per minute. Some people can finish homework 2 hours faster, as typing helps them excel, while others spend an extra 2 hours on homework each night because of their shameful typing skills. To those who are horrible at typing: look on the bright side. Blogging can help improve your typing skills; you never know, your future job may require you to have impressive typing skills, and blogger might be that one tool that helped you get to that typing level!
My final con is: the Internet. The internet possesses many temptations that are unavoidable, such as YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.. These temptations can lead us to lose our train of thought, which can lead to work that isn't horrible, but could've been extremely better. Distraction plays a huge factor in the quality of our work, and our work habits.
Now, to our PROS. Our blogs provide many benefits for us. The blogs not only prepare us for university, but they also help us adapt to a different style of learning, which in this case, is a very modern environment. I think that our blogs also help us improve our skills to connect and provide support for our writing. We have the ability to post links, videos, audio to help stabilize and back-up our writing, which would not be possible if we wrote on paper with pencils. That helps us as writers to support our ideas with related examples and connections, which also benefits readers as they can understand better what message we are trying to send. Also, blogging improves our ability to provide constructive criticism, which is a very important ability to embrace not only in education, but also in everyday life.
There are more pros than cons, in my perspective. Many of the cons were due to the inattentiveness and work habit issues in class. Most of the cons that I have listed can be solved, and do not require a lot of effort, so I believe that we should continue our blogs.
One suggestion I have for the teacher is to allow those who actively participate in their blog groups to continue the use of blogs, as some people actually grow a lot and improve dramatically through the use of blogs. For those who do not participate and give their best effort to try to help their blog groups succeed, they should be no longer allowed to participate in blogs, and go back to paper and pencil.
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