Blogs seem to have been around almost as long as the internet itself, and this week’s class got me thinking a little bit more deeply about how they might be useful in education. Two things stood out for me: first, consider a blog as an alternative medium for traditional course webpages and LMS systems. Traditional course sites are often a repository or hierarchy of attached documents, assignments, etc., and rely heavily on text as the primary means of communicating information. Looking at some examples on opened.ca, WordPress can be used to create a rich multimedia experience that’s much more browsable, in the same familiar way that you can browse a news magazine and jump between headlines, images and text to find what you’re interested in without reading end to end. Tmorgan compiled some great examples in this April post: Examples of open education practices enabled by OpenETC infrastructure. I found this history course blog to be wildly more compelling than a traditional syllabus: https://hist493.opened.ca/. I was immediately drawn into the material by way of all the photographs available as well as the high production value and intuitive design of the site.

The second benefit that stood out is the ability to collaborate and share learning. This occurs though in class presentations, but blogs provide another powerful way of sharing learning product with the class and beyond. The ability to comment and discuss within blogging platforms can be an opportunity for questions, debate and reflection. Having learners participate as content creators also raises questions of privacy, consent and obligations under FIPPA. Some of the most prominent platforms like WordPress.com and Blogger are run by large for-profit American corporations. Opened.ca looks like a great Canadian alternative but is primarily targeted at postsecondary students and teachers from what I can tell.