Weblogs as an emerging genre in higher education

What according to the author is the value of weblogs in higher education?

      Web blogs provide a platform for individual voices.

      Web blogs allow students to write their personal reflection about a particular event.

      Students acquire more information on web blogs of others.

      Web blogs serves as an alerts about an event or danger.

      Web blogs can stimulate student interest in larger notions of the social construction of information as well as presentation of self and make plagiarism less attractive.

      Web blogs can be used to explore the development of genre.

      Web blogs assist educators in conveying insights about identity and hypertext.

      Web blogs format help to organize the reader`s online experience, which can be of special assistant to students struggling with new material.

      Web blogs provide educators with an assortment of new strategies for using hyperlinks in the context of presentation of self.

      Web blogs provides specific content areas for students (Art, science and politics).

What has been your experience with blogs as a student?

      When I post something on my blog no one comment.

      Sometimes I forgot my blog password.

      I learnt from other people’s blogs.

      Blogs helps me as a foundation phase teacher in training to be technologically wise.

      Fewer people have blogs accounts when compared to Facebook accounts.

        Blogs kept me busy reading other peoples blogs most of the time.

      People respect your opinion when you post your views on your blog about something.

How can the effective use of blogs be improved in order to make them a meaningful learning tool for students?

      Blog posts should be original.

      A blog should offer a window into the author’s identity and community affiliations.

      A blog should take advantage of the medium to offer a sense of immediacy and intimacy.

      There should be an authentic purpose for maintaining the blog.

      Blogs should allow students to give voice to their passions.

      Students must post on their blogs every week even every day like in Facebook or twitter.

      Blogs invite feedback and collaborative work.

      Notifications of a new block in preferred subject matter.

      Create a discourse between student and teacher in an educational forum as well as connect the student with peers, mentors, and subject experts through a digital global network.

      Students should avoid plagiarism.

      Every student must have a blog account.