Most of the educational institutions maintain an official website in order to make students, parents and educators aware of the academic activities that are going on within the institution. A well designed school website includes the following information:
- Mission and Vision of the institution
- About the institution as well as the departments
- Faculty members and Students
- Academic, Co-curricular and Extra-curricular events
- Achievements of Organization, Faculties and Students
A website can be used to publish limited activities as it’s viewed not only by the people within the organization but also from people outside of the organization. It’s difficult for educational institutions to add all the activities on their official website as it’s predefined with limited categories and menu. Also the official website doesn’t look good if it includes activities that are not so important to others. But there is a necessity to use a web platform to make information instant. Web platforms are not only beneficial in administrative activities but also in academic activities. There is a need for educational institutions to run a blog as it is not just a great alternative to websites but also a supportive platform to use besides an official website.
What is a blog?
A Blog is an informal informational site published on the World Wide Web that enables commenting system and a simple design interface which allows authors to access and post entries (Articles) with a little programming knowledge. A blog often covers a wide variety of articles. Search engines frequently crawl blogs as they are updated daily with a number of articles.
Let’s learn about the necessity of maintaining a School Blog for teachers and students.
Motivation:
In today’s education system, getting students excited about reading is a challenge for educators. Especially for students of young age, it’s typical to read traditional textbooks. Most of the educators post lessons as blog posts with a variety of multimedia to engage students in learning. Students are allowed to use technological devices in classroom so it is not so difficult to engage them in reading. Educators can post updates about their current lessons and upcoming lessons, ask questions about previous lessons so that they can make students revise, conduct discussions about a topic as a comment thread, congratulate a student on his achievement, etc. In addition, there are many ways to motivate students to utilize features of blogs. One of the best things about a blog in my view is that it has the power to engage students who are inactive in classrooms. Studies have already proved that shy students actively participate in virtual discussions.
Collaboration:
In an institution, expert educators can post their experiences and ways of teaching as a blog post so that other educators can learn from them. Educators and administrators can discuss their teaching practices and find solutions to many educational challenges. Blogging improves social skills such as communication and collaboration. Educators can collaborate with one another from anywhere and this improves the efficiency of face-to-face meetings. Educators can also take the help of other educators globally by exchanging their practices.
Share materials, news, downloads, links and more:
Educators can provide students with a wide variety of resources.
Multi Departmental Work:
According to Dr. Abdul Kalam, 21st century curriculum must include multi departmental work as a 21st century student is required to be aware of all the fields. Unfortunately, schools don’t have a specific schedule to make these kinds of activities, so, it’s a great way to engage students of different classes and departments in online discussions. If students get to know about each other’s strengths and weaknesses and each other’s department’s strengths and weaknesses, it helps the organization to grow without getting hampered.
Connect with Global Audience:
Blogging has become a regular hobby for many students and educators nowadays. So, there is no doubt that our school blog gets attention from people globally if it’s having interesting posts. Global connections and interactions help institutions to adopt many technological practices and teaching practices in order to enhance learning.
Connect to parents:
We’re living in a fast paced world where everyone is busy with their own work. It’s difficult to involve parents in school activities. Blogs are a great way to discuss and get feedback from parents about school’s practices.
24/7 Learning:
Learning can be instant, global and a continuous process which can occur even outside the classroom. The only way to make the above things happen is by using blogs in education.
Celebrate Student learning:
What a student needs is a good encouragement which makes him develop an urge to improve himself from time to time. Schools can’t conduct award functions every time. The best way to encourage students is by announcing their names and achievements on school blog. This also motivates other students to see their names in the next test.
Improve literacy:
If we use school blog as a platform to post students’ works and suggest them to give feedback to one another, this improves their literacy skills and also helps them improve their social skills.
In addition, schools have numerous benefits of running a blog for students and educators. I’ve talked to many educators who are running a blog specifically for their classrooms and got to know many useful practices. I welcome educators or administrators to share their practices of using blogs for the whole school. Please feel free to share your views in the comment box.
