After reading the educational blogs for the read/write web 2.0 class, I created a list of pros and cons for each site. Overall, the pros outweighed the cons, so my initial vibes to jump on board the educational blog "train" has been validated.
The pros included: parents, teacher, and students from diverse locations around the world connecting, assignments clearly posted online with links to information that is easy to access in electronic format, essential English writing links such as dictionary.com and sonofcitationmachine.com, the ability to keep in contact with teachers that are on sabbatical (and for that teacher to check in on student progress), and protection by using initials instead of full names.
However, I had a long list of cons for the Upton and the Mini Legends blog sites. I spotted lots of grammatical mistakes such as run-ons. I also saw very little punctuation usage. Together these downfalls reveal that little to no proofreading skills are being reinforced on those sites. Also, one of the sites revealed too much personal information (full names and pictures) that I feel could cause safety issues. Once teachers have the needed knowledge, they can regulate educational blogs in order to eradicate the cons. For instance, a teacher can set grammar requirements and even install spell and grammar check buttons. As for safety, I feel that the more precautions the better.
Overall, educational blogs are a positive growth for the academic field when the site is maintained appropriately by the instructor.
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