To the Editor:
Teachers are frantic. Schools are closing because of COVID-19 (“Coronavirus and Schools,” Feb. 29, 2020). Suddenly, teachers have to create an online curriculum for their courses. I would like to recommend teachers use an online blogging platform. This is an amazingly creative tool for learning, teaching, and communication.
Teachers across America could, in two or three minutes’ time, create a blog that would enable them to communicate with every one of their students. I have been using a personal blog, and it has enabled me to create over 100 blogs that include photos, videos, YouTube clips, and even music.
Blogging also offers teachers the ability to include links to sources they might want to share with students. All students would have to do is click on the blog’s link and view what the teacher has to say.
Many blogging platforms are so easy to use that a parent or computer-savvy friend could show students how to create their own blogs in addition to the teacher’s blog. This would allow the teacher to visit the student’s blog to view and grade assignments.
Using a blogging platform could save off-campus classes from disintegrating into chaos or boredom amid coronavirus-related school closures. A blog could also help students keep a sense of control in this national emergency, in which they could use their blog as a creative daily digital diary. I easily created a sample video blog for teachers, maroonedteachers.blogspot.com, to show them how to communicate with their students.
Paul Keane
Retired English Teacher
White River Junction, Vt.
