Blogger (or the general idea of blogs).Learning with technology ( look Essay

Blogger (or the general idea of blogs).Learning with technology ( look at attachment) - Essay Example In schools and in the field of education, electronic and digital technologies have also become valuable companion tools for learning. The internet is filled with websites like Wikipedia, Google Scholar, Google Books, and Blogs which serve as compiled sources of information which students can easily access without having to comb through library books, journals, and encyclopaedias. Blogging and the general idea of blogs have become one of the more relevant eLearning tools. This paper shall evaluate blogging, its applications and uses. A critical analysis of this learning tool shall also be carried out. The first part of this paper shall provide an overview of blogging. The second part shall provide a critique of blogging. The third part shall discuss the learning theories which are applicable to blogging. The fourth part shall use a specific blogging application and discuss its links with learning theories. Finally, this paper shall end with summarizing and concluding remarks. Body Ove rview of blogging The second generation of internet and web use has brought on the Web 2.0 phenomenon, a progression from the initial Web 1.0 design. Where the Web 1.0 design only provided for a unilateral flow of information, the Web 2.0 design has presented with the distinct improvement of sharing information to the online community (Anderson, 2008). The convenient possibilities of the internet has allowed the process of sharing, uploading, and writing information; and editing wikis and blogs has presented educators with myriad tools for their trade. Blogs, shortened from web logs, was first suggested by Jorn Barger when he came up with a webpage which included information, personal musings, journal entries, as well as links, and posts which have been arranged by date (Anderson, 2008). Since then, blogs have largely evolved, taking in more elaborate designs, and topics; and it now even includes an area for readers to post their comments. In effect, the commenting and posting proce ss seems to have allowed blogging to take on a more interactive nature, allowing readers to offer their opinion on the blogs. Blogs also allow bloggers to consider reader’s opinions, to possibly respond to these if he so desires (Anderson, 2008). Blogging is also a media which feeds a writer’s immediacy, allowing him or her to post as often as he would like without having to wait for a date of publication as is so often seen in news or magazine articles. Blogs include words which are ‘tagged’ and in so doing the subject of the post is often categorized and archived into a standard theme where it can later be recalled. By clicking the tags or entering these words into search engines, other related links would appear, thereby allowing the reader to read other similar articles by the same or different authors (Anderson, 2008). Linking is an essential part of blogging because it increases the depth of the discussions, allowing readers to understand the blog be tter (Anderson, 2008). Linking has the same nature as referencing as it gives readers the opportunity to verify the contents of the blog and to compare it to outside sources. Through these links, the quality of each blog is often significantly improved. Blogs are a new means of interacting online as it is a forum by which internet users can pool their knowledge and opinions about a certain topic (Johnson and Kaye, 2005). They are also specific avenues for combined news and data, as