What is a blog?
The Blog is a kind of website on the Internet that is constantly updated, in reverse sequential order, that is, from the first post to the most current and that invites the online community to comment on its content (Johnson, 2007).
Right at the beginning, with the appearance of the first blogs, it was necessary to master the HTML language (Hypertext Markup Language). Today, with the evolution of the internet, anyone can create their own blog since you just need basic computer skills, due to the friendly and intuitive interfaces currently present in these resources. So, launch a blog is no longer just for IT professionals.
Blogging is also regarded as a creative writing laboratory, whose main objective is to offer the community of writers and readers a virtual place where they can meet and interact, exchanging experiences, motivations, ideas and information on topics of mutual interest. It could therefore be considered an incubator for communities of Internet users with common interests (Torres and Cavalcante, 2011).
Every day, the use of blogs in education grows, while much has been discussed about the introduction of new technologies in the Higher Education context, about their importance, applicability and potentiality. Nevertheless, the use of a new tool must be done in a critical and reflective way, so that this use is solidly based on strategies and conceptions of teaching and learning consistent with the objectives to be achieved. According to Masetto et al (2006, p. 143):
“Techniques need to be chosen according to what students are expected to learn. As the learning process encompasses intellectual, affective development, the development of skills and attitudes, it can be deduced that the technology to be used must be varied and adequate to these objectives.”
A blog is great tool for mediation of the educational process, which in addition to facilitating understanding, encourages interdisciplinarity, in an environment that is collaborative by nature, transporting the work of development and appropriation of concepts at a social level because, with a possibly larger audience, the blog over the walls of the Higher Education institution, allows the work of students and teachers to be seen, read or heard, thus favoring the development of writing in its various styles, making teachers and students active authors in construction of knowledge.
What differs from the blog that is used for pedagogical purposes and the blog that is used as a pedagogical strategy are the strategies and activities that will be proposed in the environment, as well as the attitude that teachers and students will assume using the tool. Taking into account that, regardless of the educational environment or resource, what matters most when teaching and learning is the epistemological stance and the conception of learning that will support or sustain this practice, giving it a meaning of context and need that it is so important in the educational environment.
Using a blog as a resource is characterized by being a kind of virtual library of information, with students receiving content made available through links and materials that are part of the theme and content to be worked on in class. Using a blog from the perspective of the strategy can be a collaborative space for the exposition of ideas and students debates, creation of portfolios, exchange of information, among other possibilities. According to Vygotsky apud Mantovani (2005, p. 12):
“Peer collaboration helps to develop general problem-solving strategies and skills through the cognitive process implicit in interaction and communication. Language is fundamental in the structuring of thought, being necessary to communicate the knowledge, the ideas of the individual and to understand the thinking of the other involved in the discussion or conversation. Working in collaboration with others, emphasizes the zone of proximal development (ZDP) which is “something collective” because it transcends the limits of individuals. Learning happens through the sharing of different perspectives, the need to make their thinking explicit and the understanding of the other’s thinking through oral or written interaction.”
Johnson, Doug. (2007). Blogging y el especialista en médios.>
Mantovani, Ana M. (2012). Weblogs na Educação: Construindo Novos Espaços de Autoria na Prática Pedagógica.
Masetto, Marcos; Moran, José Manuel; T; Behrens, Aparecida. (2006). Novas Tecnologias e mediação pedagógica. 10 ed. Campinas, SP: Papirus.
Torres, G; Cavalcante P. (2011). Mediação Pedagógica em Blog no Ensino Médio. Congresso Nacional de Ambientes Hipermídia para Aprendizagem. Pelotas, RS/Brazil.