Week 1 – Readings

I found Adrian Miles’ Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning really helpful in explaining his choice to use online blogs as a tool in teaching media education. His passion for the technology is clear, and as someone who is not familiar with the ins and outs of blogging, it made me excited to explore it further.

I like how he has placed an emphasis on breaking down the divide between tertiary studies and the work place. Often it is hard to make direct links to industry practice whilst studying at Uni and it can feel as though the two are very seperate. Here, Adrian explains that our online blogs will form an online media portfolio and in doing so we will learn practicalities such as regulations about copyright, intellectual property and Internet ethics. These things are hard to grasp when you don’t see their effects in a practical manner.

The blogs allow us as students to stay connected and share ideas which is both supportive and motivating. I get the feeling that this subject will rely heavily on interpretation, discussion and the sharing of ideas.

Stephen Hull from Metro News UK reported in 2006 that 20,000 people a day in the UK start a blog. I imagine that number has grown exponentially over the last seven years. I think blogs in media education is a practical and valuable way to teach media students how to use online resources effectively and after doing the reading and learning about the possibilities I’m surprised it’s not used more often as an education tool.