Blog and online learning

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I have known and used blog when MSN introduced its blog to its msn users couple of years ago. The original purpose for its existence was to let people establish an online community to network with his/her friends as well as to express personal feelings. Using the blog in the cloassroom is a new way to exploit the information technology. I believe the most significant feature of blog is sharing information in a most convenient way. In the tradition way of online learing/education, one wish to share his/her information with others, who has to email every individuals the sender want to share with. With bloging, one can host a virtual space with no monetary costs and can share the information with other users with minimizing the email exchanges. Thanks to the nature and the function of blog, the information is stored in an unique virtual space. It will insure the integrity and consistancy of information to all viewers and viewers or selected viewers could be notified when there are new updates on the blog. Online Learners would be benefited by receiving instant update notice which will reduce the lead time; therefore increase the learning efficiency and even makes the online learning/education much more flexible. On the other hand, blog could get students' voice in his/her community. Without face to face conversation and interatcton, on one extreme, a student who has very introverted personality might feel more comfortable communicating with peers or teachers in a blog instead of in a classroom settings. It helps teachers easier to get to know every students and students could receive fair attention from peers and teachers.

Bloging is not only serving and enhancing the quality of distance learning that learner with limited access to on-site learning, but also serving the on-site learners to make their education more personalized and efficient.