Anytime, Anyspace and Anyone: A Blog-Based Model for Teaching Geography

With the rapid development of networked teaching methods, the blog has become a more and more important tool for communicating and sharing ideas. Though blogs have often been used to teach language or medical subjects, the use of blog in teaching geography is still limited. Arguing that blogging as a tool for teaching geography well worth taking seriously, this chapter proposes a diamond model that extends the time and space of classroom teaching. The diamond model connects blogs with the classroom in which blogs can involve others apart from students and teachers in the teaching and learning process. We draw from typical blog posts to analyze how blogs can mediate new relationships between students and teachers. The blog posts are classified into six categories which are Ex-curricular Teaching, Classical Literature, Hot Issues & Discussions, Student Works, and Reprints & Citations of cultural geography. Specific examples of blog articles and comments are given to show how students, teachers and others use blog as a tool to study and teach outside the classroom. The results have shown that the accessibility of new media now allows teachers to reach an unlimited audience and interact with students beyond time and space limitation. This is what we are calling “anytime, anyspace, and anyone.” Anytime means users are allowed to use blog anytime. Anyspace means that blogs help teachers leap into vaster networked spaces but not limited by the classroom. Anyone means blogs are open to anyone so that anyone can browse, learn, research, and exchange ideas through blogs.