The potential of using blogs & designing websites in a teaching context...

I thought using blogs would be a positive tool to use in classrooms, however when I started researching I found that there are negatives too.  I used a SWOT analysis to come up with the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of using blogs within a classroom.

SWOT Analysis for using Blogs in Classrooms

Strengths

• Chance to rehearse reflective practice
• Encourages collaborative learning
• Constructivist approach to learning
• Allows work to be shared beyond the classroom

Weakness

• Takes time to update your blogs
• Hard to keep the subject matter relevant
• Not confidential
• Mistakes are online forever

Opportunities

• Collaborating with students from around the world
• Travel blogs
• Reflective practice for both students and teachers
• Ability to monitor learning over a few lessons or terms
• Opportunities to read and write
• Enables scaffolded learning

Threats

• Linking with pages or people you don't know
• Security risks
• Dealing with spam

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SWOT Analysis for using Websites in Classrooms

Strengths

• Greatly enhance communications between students, teachers and parents
• Could add a class calendar to the website so students and parents know what is going on 
• Relevant links for students to learn more about what was covered in each KLA
• Could also add class rules (formulated by students) and school guidelines

Weakness

• Usability issues with younger children
• Slow typists and poor mouse control
• Security issues - be wary of submitting personal information

Opportunities

• To become more aware of the Internet and its capabilities
• Teaching students how to do something practical
• Endless really - instead of written assignments it could be uploaded onto a class website
• Could contain all the school information - class profile and curriculum information

Threats

• Constant spam
• Cyberbullying