The use of technology in the classroom can be both interesting and beneficial. It can provide opportunities for interactivity and student engagement, and provide the instructor with alternatives to traditional pedagogical techniques.
Web logs, or “blogs,” are one of the most talked-about phenomena on the Internet. Prominent blogs are often quoted in political discussions within the mainstream media, and journalistic blogs sometimes break original stories. The concept is simple. A blog is generally a site whose aim is the presentation of essays or other material created by the site’s author. It differs from the older concept of a home page (or a web site in general) primarily because of its features: blogs generally allow the author to add content to the site without editing the underlying code, readers can offer feedback on the page, and syndication techniques can be used to make the blog available in locations besides the original web site.
Most blogs are provided by dedicated services whose services are free or inexpensive. This is usually not a problem, but make sure you read any user agreements carefully before signing up for a service. Some services may assert rights to your content which you aren't comfortable with ceding to them. Select a service which meets your needs.
Though the definition of “information literacy” is a subject of debate, the simplest definition may come from the American Library Association: information literacy is the ability to recognize when information is needed and to find and use that information. Unlike some other concepts in instructional technology, information literacy is a core requirement for the effective employment of these techniques.
Learning objects are pedagogical materials intended for re-use. This describes many traditional forms of information storage, of course, but few people would describe an encyclopedia article as a “learning object.” Instead, most learning objects are relatively small and self-contained and are intended for re-use for different instructional purposes. Most fundamentally, digital learning objects rely on the automated categorization and processing which computers allow, and make use of descriptive tags and metadata.
Social networking is one of the most popular uses of the Internet. It can be considered electronic socialization: a set of software intended for informal conversation and connections between people who may or may not know each other “in real life.”
Webcasting is the practice of recording a lecture and providing it for students over the Internet. This can include recordings of traditional lectures or of specially designed tutorials intended for this purpose. These can take the form of streaming video—akin to the familiar YouTube—or they can be audio-only. Streaming audio recordings are often called podcasts.
Like blogs, wikis are a technological advancement over the traditional "web page." Blogs make it easier to publish one-way communication; wikis make it possible to collaborate. A wiki allows the user to edit the information presented. This causes problems of authority, so wikis like Wikipedia are not suitable for research, but they can be an interesting and rewarding collaboration and communication tool for controlled groups.