Blogs have been around on the web for a while. Many people have use them for either personal reasons, educational, business, or leisure. They all personalize their blogs by using templates. The blog comes with some predetermine templates that can be modified by the user; however, teachers should be careful of the kind of template they use. These templates shouldn’t be overloaded or unattractive. They shouldn’t lack of colors nor overuse them. The font, the size, the colors, and the background, everything is important when creating the blog. In the video, the instructor emphasized that bright or light colors are not really recommended despite they look OK to us. Teachers should always think about their context, who their students are, what the topic is, the aim of the blog, and so on. In the reading “Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom” it is stated, ‘Class blogs can serve as a portal to foster a community of learners. As they are easy to create and update efficiently […]’. Then, the information should be clearly presented to students. They should be able to read and understand it. The template can be used either to call students’ attention to the blog or to reduce their motivation of working on it. I think that a well organize blog invites students to learn. If there is a messy blog, I think it is like getting into a dirty, messy, dark store… you don’t even want to get in, not even if you need what they have in it. You doubt if the product is good just by looking at the presentation of the store. The same happens with the blog. They are ‘easy to create and update’, then teachers can modify them whenever it becomes necessary. As a teacher, I will use templates that are simple and dark. In this way, the attention would be centered in the information more than the background. Bright colors will be use for titles and important vocabulary because students need to recognize what information is more important to learn. Another way of using the blog is for each student to create their own to present an assignment. They can choose the colors and change the blog as they like, either by using single colors or templates. In this way, they will be producing and communicating through the target language while using their creativity in creating their own blog.
“Fortunately for teachers, blogs are surprisingly easy to use. They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. Unlike many traditional Web sites, they are flexible in design and can be changed relatively easily. Best of all, students will find them convenient and accessible via home or library computers.” (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47) Taking this statement into consideration, we can say that blogs are an innovative and flexible tool any educator can use to enhance their teaching. Furthermore, a teacher should be very creative when designing a template for the blog because it will be evaluated by his/her students. If the blog is too colorful, full of images and videos, they are going to get distracted. On the other hand, if the blog is too neutral they might get bored. Besides, colors and fonts should be carefully chosen, there are combinations of colors that could hurt the eyes, even more if we are going to be in the blog for a long time. A good balance between the fun things we can find in a blog like gadgets and the real purpose of the blog per se is absolutely necessary. As a teacher, I would customize the templates to relate student’s reality in the blog they are using, for example, background and images from around town. Another way to incorporate this information about customizing blogs would be asking students to design the blog along with me, so they can add ideas and feel the blog nearer them.
Blogs have been around on the web for a while. Many people have use them for either personal reasons, educational, business, or leisure. They all personalize their blogs by using templates. The blog comes with some predetermine templates that can be modified by the user; however, teachers should be careful of the kind of template they use. These templates shouldn’t be overloaded or unattractive. They shouldn’t lack of colors nor overuse them. The font, the size, the colors, and the background, everything is important when creating the blog. In the video, the instructor emphasized that bright or light colors are not really recommended despite they look OK to us. Teachers should always think about their context, who their students are, what the topic is, the aim of the blog, and so on. In the reading “Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom” it is stated, ‘Class blogs can serve as a portal to foster a community of learners. As they are easy to create and update efficiently […]’. Then, the information should be clearly presented to students. They should be able to read and understand it. The template can be used either to call students’ attention to the blog or to reduce their motivation of working on it. I think that a well organize blog invites students to learn. If there is a messy blog, I think it is like getting into a dirty, messy, dark store… you don’t even want to get in, not even if you need what they have in it. You doubt if the product is good just by looking at the presentation of the store. The same happens with the blog. They are ‘easy to create and update’, then teachers can modify them whenever it becomes necessary. As a teacher, I will use templates that are simple and dark. In this way, the attention would be centered in the information more than the background. Bright colors will be use for titles and important vocabulary because students need to recognize what information is more important to learn. Another way of using the blog is for each student to create their own to present an assignment. They can choose the colors and change the blog as they like, either by using single colors or templates. In this way, they will be producing and communicating through the target language while using their creativity in creating their own blog.
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“Fortunately for teachers, blogs are surprisingly easy to use. They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. Unlike many traditional Web sites, they are flexible in design and can be changed relatively easily. Best of all, students will find them convenient and accessible via home or library computers.” (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47)
ReplyDeleteTaking this statement into consideration, we can say that blogs are an innovative and flexible tool any educator can use to enhance their teaching. Furthermore, a teacher should be very creative when designing a template for the blog because it will be evaluated by his/her students. If the blog is too colorful, full of images and videos, they are going to get distracted. On the other hand, if the blog is too neutral they might get bored. Besides, colors and fonts should be carefully chosen, there are combinations of colors that could hurt the eyes, even more if we are going to be in the blog for a long time. A good balance between the fun things we can find in a blog like gadgets and the real purpose of the blog per se is absolutely necessary. As a teacher, I would customize the templates to relate student’s reality in the blog they are using, for example, background and images from around town. Another way to incorporate this information about customizing blogs would be asking students to design the blog along with me, so they can add ideas and feel the blog nearer them.