How Blogging could Revolutionize Philippine Education

In Francis Bacon’s “Of Studies”, he said that it is in the act of writing that makes a man precise and it is in reading where a man is made whole. Granting that the first statement is true, I wonder why hasn’t blogging been utilized in educating the youth? In an article by BBC News UK entitled “Academics give lessons on blogs” by Shola Adenekan, it was mentioned that Warwick University already noticed the benefits of blogging and gave its students free space on their server, allowing them to have their own blogs for academic and personal use. 

While we may not have the monetary resources to provide computer stations in every school similar to the university above, we have internet cafes in every corner and street. We have cafes going low as 5 pesos per quarter-hour and 15 pesos for a whole. With regard to the issues of that keeping a blog may be too tedious, we now have blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr where setting up a blog only requires the technical skills of clicking, dragging, and reading instructions.

I dream of a Philippines where you no longer take the hassle of printing out college papers only to be read by your professor, kept in a cabinet, and disposed of when the semester ends. 

By blogging, you take your papers/essays/reflections to the next level by sharing to the online community your work. This allows students to:

• Share their perspective on different issues that plague our country today. This may contribute to the holistic development of students making them socially aware and proactive citizens
• Become more accurate with their facts and more responsible for what they write since they are accountable for what they post
• Interact with other people via online means by reading, subscribing, and commenting on other’s post as blogging is a form a social media.
• Improve their grammar and writing styles. According to educationworld.com, several researchers already stated that students who blog “write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to an authentic audience over the Internet”.
• Be exposed to different perspectives, opinions, and experiences that may facilitate their understanding, enrich their knowledge, and supplement their learning obtained from the traditional classroom set up. This is in congruence with an article by Stephen Downes (2004) where he said that the blogging, especially those that reflect the teachings in class, brings life into learning.

This can also have a beneficial effect for the faculty members should they make their own academic blogs since blogging can be employed as a means of:

• Distributing supplemental notes online in a jiffy so that it could be accessible to all
• Having as an out-of-the-classroom interaction venue where students can post questions about the topics left unanswered or unasked in class.

In a nutshell, I believe blogging can be an effective tool in revolutionizing the Philippine educational system. Just imagine your teacher requiring the class to come up with their blogs where they can post their reflections and essays. The teacher gives then feedback in the form of comments left on the student’s blog. Wouldn’t that be more convenient and cost effective than the students printing their work and submitting it personally to the teacher who is then left with layers and layers of paper? 

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