Blogs – Advantages

References provided in Literature Section

• Can be easily published and accessed via the Internet (Beldarrain, 2006)
• Strengthens individuality, collectivity, and community (Ebner, 2009)
• Increases student interest and ownership of learning (Brescia & Miller, 2009)
• Provides opportunities to take what is learned in the classroom and express it to those in the public eye – just as they would in the real world (Brescia & Miller, 2009)
• Allows students to reflect before responding (Brescia & Miller, 2009)
• Enables users to archive their entries and visitor comments in a chronological order or category-based order (Kim, 2008)
• Allows students to have control over their blog entries, which contributes to more comfortable circumstances where students can be encouraged to make reflections and comments (Kim, 2008)
• Facilitates a series of extended discussions beyond class meetings (Kim, 2008)
• Members of a community can exchange thoughts on a public channel without having to use HTML language, which allows users to focus on content vs. programming (Wang & Hsua, 2008)
• Blogging platforms provide authors with a “tag” that enables them to categorize content and to make it easier for readers to access the archived information (Wang & Hsua, 2008)
• Encourages opinion expression among participants who are uncomfortable with related face-to-face discussions (Wang & Hsua, 2008)