Educational Blogging

Downes, Stephen (2004). Educational Blogging. EDUCAUSE Review,, 39, Retrieved 04/04/2009, from http://connect.educause.edu/library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EducationalBlogging/40493


This article was written in 2004 by Stephen Downes. In the article Mr. Downes explained the role of blogs in our education system today by showing many students’ blogs. For instance one of his examples was a fifth grade student who had strong feeling about his blog, he said “The blogs give us a chance to communicate between us and motivate us to write more” (Downes, 2004, Educause Review). I think these are very powerful future because when bloggers publish on their blogs, people from the entire world can respond by using the comments link. The fifth grade student added “This way, they can ask questions or simply tell us what they like. We can then know if people like what we write and this indicate[s to] us what to do better. By reading these comments, we can know our weaknesses and our talents” ” (Downes, 2004, Educause Review) It is very effective toll for feed back, which is crucial in learning process. It can bring people from different background, religion, and race together in order to exchange their point of view with each other and to be open minded and sensitive to the rest of the world not just people in our immediate environment. Mr. Downes showed in his article many definitions of the blog. It seems like these definitions were developed over time reacting to important events in our life and development in technology. According to Downes “Blogging is something defined by format and process, not by content” (Downes, 2004, Educause Review). The strength of this article is the connections that the writer made between the big events and the way us response to those events through technology. Blogs should always meet our new needs in order to help educators and students to solve problems. On the other hand the weakness of the article is the way the article explained the five major uses for blogs in education. I think these uses could be identifying better, and be supported with clear examples.