I have selected for you this great videos . Watch what these leading educational thinkers say about the 21st century skills teachers need to have . Enjoy watching.

Issues and risks associated with blogging?

As blogs are entirely owned and controlled by the blog author, obviously this means that the University and the teacher have no control over what students (or staff) might post and these postings will usually be publicly viewable. So there is a risk that postings could be openly challenging, critical and even offensive.

Downes (2004) recounts several occasions where problems of this sort have occurred including a university that experienced a problem when a student's blog resulted in a commercial company threatening legal action and also occasions where students have posted insulting and threatening comments about fellow students and teaching staff.

Ultimately when a blogging system is provided and hosted by the University (such as the Elgg system at Leeds) then ultimately a university staff member will administrate the system and would be able to remove any troublesome posts when they are reported. However the potential for censorship (especially if this ability is openly exercised) will have an impact on the writing of the bloggers using the system.

ICT and students' motivation

The effects of ICT on students' motivation, conducted by Cox, have identified a number of specific motivational aspects, including enhanced commitment to the learning task, enhanced enjoyment and interest, increased self esteem and increases in independence and confidence (Cox, 1997; 1999).The researchers found that the majority of the teachers reported a higher degree of motivation amongst the pupils and a better attitude to work when the pupils were using laptop computers. This motivation, leading to enhanced self esteem, was especially noticeable for the pupils in a school for special needs.

What is a blog?

"A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order." (Wikipedia 2007) 

A blog (short for web log) is a specific type of web site that an individual or a group of authors adds entries (posts) to on a regular basis. These entries are displayed in reverse chronological order i.e. the most recent entries first. Where there are many previous entries these are archived and can be accessed via links or a blog search.

Common features of a blogging system:

- Easy to use authoring tools that allow text, images, video etc to be incorporated in blog entries

- A search facility

- The facility for blog readers to add public comments to each entry

- Automated archiving of previous entries

- A news feed which allows readers to subscribe to a specific blog and be automatically alerted to new posts (see using feeds to monitor blogs)

Blogs are one of the most representative tools of WEB. They offer flexibility, adaptability, and integration with other tools.