This has been a most informative session and a productive beginning to the Web 2 Course. In terms of teaching English, blogs would be very beneficial in providing additional support material for units, particularly in terms of the essay assessment tasks. Often students email to seek clarification concerning problems with their essays. Many students are asking similar questions about problems they are encountering. By giving students access to a blog to act as a 'troubleshooter' a considerable amount of time would be saved for both the teacher and student.
Blogs will also be a great way of writing work samples for students. For example, when covering the various text types contained within a newspaper, I would be able to compose my own front page stories,editorials, letters to the editor etc particularly to demonstrate how subjective reporting often is (critical literacy), even more so during a federal election!! Students would be encouraged to post their articles on the blog to provide a valuable resource for all of the students.
I can also see how photography could be utilized to great effect when creating blogs, making them more informative and appealing to those accessing the blog. Students, also would be encouraged to incorporate photography into their blogs given that our Year 9s and 10s have this facility built into their notebooks.
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