Blogs are usually created by anyone who has something to say to the world via the Internet. One NIU instructor, however, uses his blogs for his class.

Scott Balcerzak, assistant professor of English, uses his blogs for his film and literature class.

As a part of the class, students must open a Blogger account in their real name. All the blogs are private and are only open to those in the class.

“Thus far, I have been most interested in employing group blogs in the classroom as opposed to individual blogs.” Balcerzak said in an e-mail. “I have found using something as basic as blogger.com is an effective way to encourage students to view and comment on each other’s ideas.”

Instead of doing formal writing like some English professors, Balcerzak promotes students to do writings that are casual.

The blog gives more flexibility for students to express their views and opinions like posting links to websites or YouTube videos, he said.

Vanessa Vasquez, junior pre-physical therapy major, said she uses a blog for class discussions within groups for her human development class.

“I think its good idea because you get feedback,” Vasquez said. “You get different opinions as far as what people thought overall about the article.”

Junior history major Andy Smith said he does not use blogs for personal use, but he does use it to communicate with people to bounce around ideas for class papers.

Frank Ortman, junior political science major, said he doesn’t use blog websites but said he sees its uses.

“It’s definitely a good thing for example in Egypt the whole revolution started with a Facebook post,” Ortman said. “So blogging allows people who are repressed to get their ideas out and join together to make something happen could be positive.”

RJ Norris, freshman television broadcasting major, said he has always had a problem speaking what’s on his mind in person so he prefers blogging over talking to people directly.

“It’s a forum where I can get ideas down in a clear, easy to understand manner,” Norris said. “Which is difficult for me in regular public speaking.”