Using a blog to support learning...

Posting personal thoughts and philosophies on the web allows us to open our minds to the world and have the world respond. My early thoughts on blogging are that it has the potential to create great synergy of ideas that can assist in the construction of knowledge AND understanding.

I found a Powerpoint created by Paul Holland on the Education Queensland site - good resource for understanding how to use Weblogs in education. Through Weblogs students learn how to write for an audience, use a discussion board and/or create a collaborative resource. Weblogs support the development of research skills and collaborative effort.

Blogging also develops habits of mind by requiring critical thinking (maintain an open mind, respond appropriately to others' feelings and level of knowledge), creative thinking (push the limits of your knowledge and abilities) and self-regulated thinking (monitor your own thinking).

Second thoughts...
I have been reading and re-reading information on the learning theories (behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism) and realised how one thing leads to another and as we develop our thinking, our thinking changes and I ended up caught in a loop. So I decided that I needed to build a concept map that put all the information in one place in an organised fashion. And as I began to begin ... I thought "Perhaps this has been done before ..." and so with sincere thanks to Eric van Dusen here is what I have been thinking about...
Theories of Learning. eLearning in the classroom can sit in each one of these theories of learning. The sound of a cheer or gong when an answer is right or wrong on an interactive game (behaviourist), the development of a concept map to show the organisation and/or pattern of information (cognitivist) and the use of a blog to demonstrate knowledge and that allows others to collaborate and consolidate learning (constructivist). And beyond this, connectivism where learning is placed beyond the classroom (consider linking your classroom to another in Africa, Europe, America via Skype).