Maggieh added this really good resource to our digital library the other day, entitled: Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students. This article was written by Ruth Reynard and published in Campus Technology.

Maggieh’s desrciption is as follows:

Ruth Reynard’s article in Campus Technology provides helpful guidelines for properly directing the use of blogs within a course. The article details the following pitfalls:

1. Ineffective contextualization
2. Unclear learning outcomes
3. Misuse of the environment
4. Illusive grading practices
5. Inadequate time allocation

Using blogs is a great way to make a class interactive. Karl Kapp uses blogs for his students, which he gives a wonderful example of students using blogs in his NetWorks webinar: Transferring Knowledge to the New Style of Learning: Extending the Classroom Beyond the Four Walls. If you use a blog wrong, it can really frustrate the students. Reynard’s article is a great reminder on what not to do.

How many of you use blogs in your classroom and how successful are the blogs? What do your students think?

Mark Viquesney