Blog
Practice teaching and learning not only could be done in the classroom, but today we also can use modern teaching aids to support the process. One of the teaching aids is blog. Blog is one of the facilities which is given by server freely to do written, audio, or visual communication.
A lot of teacher in some countries has used blog to the importance of teaching and learning process. Teacher in Brazil, for example, use blog because it can help the students to express themselves. Students who use blog can communicate with another student in other country and of course they are able to learn each other’s life and they also can practice English more. In using blog, teacher and students can connect themselves and they get closer to each other. However, both of them must try to keep and promote interaction. Therefore, the challenges can be reduced. In other hands, sometime the students have some difficulties in making creativity and imagination. In this case, teacher should support them and the teacher can develop test in blog although sometime it is difficult to be done.
In Argentina, teacher use blog because it can help the students to learn English faster. On the other hand, they can practice English more because they have experience for themselves to communicate and do conversation with teacher or the students from everywhere. Teacher is also able to arrange the course meeting and publish it through blog, therefore the students are able to know, they even can submit their comment to the particular blog. Both the students and teacher can take advantages of blog to carry out their project and take messages. By uploading some files such as photograph and voice recording, they can share and talk to another students abroad who can help them to practice English because at class they do not have a chance to practice the communication more.
Teacher in Taiwan is also use blog to practice teaching and learning English. In student presentation activity, teacher record the performance and upload it trough blog. Therefore, students are able to watch and report self evaluation. In other hand, they are also able to make peer and self feedback. Trough blog, teacher can give voice recording assignment, so the students can enhance their own skills and they can also share the assignment by email.
In Indonesia, teacher usually use any kinds of media in teaching and learning activities. Both traditional and modern teaching aids have been used by the teacher to support the teaching activities. One of the teaching aids that is used by teacher is blog. Teacher introduce blog to the students in order to make teaching and learning process become easier. By using blog, teacher not only can manage the activities of teaching and learning, but teacher is also able to introduce the high technology media which can support and help them to do communication even with students abroad. In giving the assignment, teacher can publish it through blog, so students can submit the assignment and leave a comment. However, not all of the teacher and students in Indonesia know what blog is. This is one of the challenges for every teachers to enhance their teaching ability for a brighter future in the educational world. Though blog is useful, it has one biggest weakness which is its reliability or validity for scientific purposes. As example, people who want to do scientific research can not just add data from blog because people who write blog might be incompetent. However, people can use scientific data from official websites which is differ from blog.
There are many teaching aids in this universe. It depends on our creativity to take the advantages of it.
