Blogging as Teaching Learning Media

Technology is getting more sophisticated nowadays. It gives a great impact in human life, including educational life. Technology has an important role in helping teachers to make them easier when explaining materials. One of technologies that can be used as teaching learning media is blog. Blog is a website maintained by individual or group. We can post comments, articles, graphics, photographs or even video. Many countries over the world have applied blog as a teaching learning media, for example, Brazil, Argentina and Taiwan.

In Brazil, the teacher usually asks their students to write about themselves, their family or friends. Besides that, the teacher develops test in the blog. Using blog in class is very beneficial. By blogging the teacher can encouraged the students to express themselves. Since they write about themselves, the other students can also read their friend’s write and it makes them learn each others’ life and opinion. So the relationship between teacher-students and student-student can get closer. In other hand, the students’ skill can be improved because they can improve their language skills by doing more practice. The challenges that have to be encountered by the teacher are how to keep interaction high. Besides that, the teacher has to be more creative in maintaining the blog. She has to improve her imagination in order to make the blog is as attractive as possible.

Different to Brazil, teacher in Argentina use blog to carry out the project that has to be done by the students, so they will have a new experience. Besides that the teacher can arrange the course meeting there. Sometimes teacher will take photographs and upload in the blog. She will ask her students to write what they feel about those photos. Students can send text message or voice message to other students in the classroom or even students from other countries. These activities are very useful because they can improve their English language by practicing in listening, speaking, writing and reading. Then by using this facility, students will get the information faster than before.

One of teachers in Taiwan uses the blog creatively. She records students’ presentation using video recorder and upload it to the blog. Then she asks her students to watch their presentation and report their self evaluation, also posted in the blog. Besides that the students are asked to make a peer or self feedback, but it has to be recorded. For improve speaking skill, teacher asks the students to make voice recording assignment. By using blog in the classroom, students can enhance their own skills.

How about in Indonesia? I think only a few teachers who apply this media in their teaching learning process. In general, teachers write the lesson materials in their blog. So the students do not need to rewrite the materials that will be learnt. It is also useful when teacher cannot come to the class. Sometimes he/she asks the students to write the assignment in the blog. The benefits of using blog in class are students can keep studying though there is no class meeting. But there are some challenges that have to be encountered by the teachers and students in Indonesia if they want to use this media. Such as only a few of schools that have equipped themselves with internet, moreover some schools in suburban still do not have any computers. When the schools have provided computers, the problem come from the teachers, some of them are still unfamiliar with high technology such as computer and internet. So, the schools have to provide computer training program for the teachers before applying the blog as teaching learning media.