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Teaching My Students How to Blog

It is my third semester to teach my students about blogging. I started it last year with my computer engineering students in PUP as an additional topic and to my civil engineering and AB History students in the Intro to IT subject. I did not found it hard to teach the topic for most of the students regularly surfs the net and knows the ins and out, specially email, egroups and friendster and they are on their 3rd to 4th year in college. Some of the already have blogs and almost everyone wants to have their own blogs. We just discuss the basics like how to get started, where to get the free site and how to maintain their blogs plus what to blog about and what not to, and the students do the rest with minimal supervision from me. Then I regularly visit their blogs for additional extra points on their final grade and its not compulsory.

This semester is quite different from the previous ones, I teach Intro to Information Technology at PLMAR (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina), to freshmen BSBA, BS Criminology and CareGiving students. Almost half of the students in the classes have no computer background let alone an Internet experience, we stared with the basic terminologies in computer and had discussed up to networking and the Internet. It’s really rewarding when they tell you stories where they use the terms we learned like WIFI and 3G and using wikipedia. I taught Blogging under our topic Multimedia and the Web, where I discussed and brought samples of Podcasts and Screen captures of popular blogs and of course You Tube, and encourage them to surf to some sites like pinoytopblogs, video blogs, photoblogs and podcating sites.

When they started creating their own blogs came the problem, we don’t have a computer laboratory with internet connection at school so they rent at computer rentals and surf on their own after class without my supervision. Some of the students can’t seem to access their blogs after signing up or others are too scared to try alone. Since this Monday, Aug 27 is a holiday, I scheduled an Online conference in Yahoo Messenger at their request so that I can assist them as they start creating their blogs. It was a success but it was very exhausting for me, trying to instruct at most five students at a time using chat as a medium on what to do till they successfully publish their first articles. Some had already published their first articles while some students just ask assistance in getting the blog and promised to post articles soon.

I am planning to put links to their blogs in the next few days as they start blogging and we plan to have a contest on the Top 10 blogs coming from them at the end of the semester. I’ll be featuring their blogs at my other blogsite digitized youth. Hope this activity enables them to have a happy time blogging.

Comments

ek manalaysay said…
cool prof! keep on teaching on students on how to blog so that the pinoy blogging community will expand further! keep it up! :)
Anonymous said…
that's a good initiative, very innovative. don't you think they might get addicted? LOL
joan_pinon said…
@yatot - Thanks. I make it a practice to teach all of my students to blog, its very rewarding.

@sexymom - I hope that if ever they get addicted they can turn to me for help. LOL
analou said…
maganda astig tlaga ang blog mo maam!!!!!!!!!!!!!kaso mahirap eh!lalo na pag first time!
shierelyn said…
maam!!si shierelyn poh eto ng BSBA 1-3MA astig ang blog nyo maam!!
Anonymous said…
maaam!!ako eto si jayson pacia ng BSBA1-3MA
arnel said…
arnel BSBA 1-3MA astig ang blog mo maam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
henrico said…
henrico BSBA 1-3MA astig!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jay cliff said…
thanks for all your effort to teach us how to blog!!!keep up the good work!! nice proof astig ka tlaga maam!!wala kang katulad sa plmar!!!hehehehehehehe
abby said…
hi mam.. its me your student in plmar.. your articles are really nice..you put sense in every topic that you always made..
mariafe said…
mam,, ang ganda ng blog m ha!!! mam pareho tau ng style ng blog,, d ko ginaya yung blog m ha!!! ang cute kasi ng color kaya yun ang pinili koh!!! ang ang hirap ng pinapagawa m samin... ubos powers...grabeh!!!