Blogs - The New Frontier

When one reflects upon the notion that blogging can enhance international student collaboration, a person should realize that “weblogs truly expand the walls of the classroom” (Richardson, 2010, p. 27).  Think about it – the Internet is also known as the World Wide Web – not the State by State or City by City Wide Web.  Its structure is such that we connect with one another on a global level.  The classroom should be no exception.  Students can benefit from “a sense of understanding and tolerance, which helps develop a students learning about the world in which they live” (Morris, 2011).  As educators we not only need to be cognoscente of the local standards deemed important by our school systems, we also need to prepare our students for the world in which they will eventually have to life and compete in.  While we may not all have video enabled telecommunication devices, most of us do have access to Internet portals.  For the most part, that is all that a blogger needs to begin the process of collaboration.  While it may not be the most highly technical of collaborative tools, it’s an excellent starting point.

Sources:

Morris, K. (2011). A reflection on the benefits of classroom blogging. Primary Tech. Retrieved from http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/01/17/a-reflection-on-the-benefits-of-blogging/

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.