The Utility of Blogging for Education: How Blogs can Act as Healing Aid in Post-Pandemic Education and Beyond
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
As education shifted online during the trying times of the pandemic, the challenge to bridge the learning gap between students, study materials, teachers and the new modes of learning became evident. In light of this concern, Dr. Vartika Nanda, Head, Department of Journalism, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, introduced the exemplary initiative of creating a conducive atmosphere of effective learning for students. Her vision, proclaiming a learning without barriers, progressed into helping students make the best from the online mode in the most innovative way possible.
Over the past few years, Dr. Vartika Nanda’s blog (http://vartikananda.blogspot.com/) has emerged as a platform disseminating essential knowledge related to the curriculum to the students. Its use has ensured in-depth learning, making it the most accessible hub for students offering essential course-related reading material and meticulously compiled notes. These notes come embedded with useful external links and citations that help students get to the deepest root of the subject matter. Containing reliable information from the year 2006 to 2021, this blog is indeed an information archive which can be referred by the students at any time. The blog also contains a sub-section on books related to media enabling the student-body broaden its knowledge with diverse and exhaustive texts on key industrial practices. There are several publications written by Dr. Nanda herself which cover the subject of journalism comprehensively, a feature which has helped make the blog a go-to source for the students of the department for any course-related query.
By way of the blog, Dr. Nanda encourages students to come forward and take the initiative to contribute and enrich the overall learning base. Manifestly, several articles on this blog have been written, compiled and edited by the students on the topics related to media and journalism, among others. A variety of topics have been covered by the students so far, an activity which gives them a push to do something productive. The entire process is an immense learning experience for the students as often the whole class contributes to certain pieces which then receive encouragement as they get published on the blog. Apart from that, such recognition instils in students a sense of pride and adds weightage to their portfolio.
Dr. Nanda’s blog has transformed into a repository of content that can enhance students’ knowledge about topics both theoretical and practical in nature. Interactivity is the key factor optimising the blog. Students positively comment on blogposts, highlighting the scope of improvement and making essential value-additions. This, additionally, broadens the margin of discussion, opening the gates for new information and facilitating the exchange of ideas. Students have also shared their journey and experiences on the blog. This blog has given them the strength to be outspoken and expressive. Several exercises have been carried out to make students express their hearts and be more thoughtfully vocal. For example, ‘The Lockdown Diaries’, an initiative that prompted students to write about their experiences during the national lockdown, gave them a space to express themselves and share their new learnings. Students also exchanged their woes and sufferings, which in turn made them feel more connected to their peers in college.
Over several months, Dr. Nanda’s blog has grown to witness the expression of creative talent of students across domains. The blog has provided a strong push to students to incorporate technical and practical learning in their reading of theoretical material. Few examples of this are the various posts containing essential information on newsletter-making, magazine-designing, and the many exhibits of posters and videos. Such content has helped students learn to stay loyal to the decided theme, come up with creative names for their publications, finalize the content, write unique headlines, structure writings in various formats, carry out designing, work in groups and generate the best-possible output in a way most efficient.
The blog also contains sections on media glossary, columns on journalism, along with significant content written by Dr. Nanda herself. This blog treasures particulars about Dr. Nanda’s remarkable efforts and hard work in prison reforms that led to the Tinka Tinka movement that she founded years ago. Some sections enormously help one to dig deeper into Tinka Tinka’s efforts in the prisons in Tihar, Dasna and Madhya Pradesh, three impressively unique landmarks in the arena of prison reforms in India that have been recognised across the country. There is a separate space called ‘Corona Diaries’ which documents the lives of prisoners during the pandemic providing the readers a sticking insight into their lives behind bars.
Dr. Vartika Nanda also writes several columns, pieces and poems that are an immense source of inspiration for youth and for all the visitors on the blog. The blog’s ‘Media Desk’ displays a thorough inside-view of the work carried out by her in the field of media, socially as well as in her different publications. Alongside, the detailed reports of several events, often curated by the students of the department, on the blog, enable connectivity and present rich insights into the recent developments at the college and departmental level.
Overall, Dr. Vartika Nanda’s blog has evolved into an enriching platform where students can get useful resources, express themselves and showcase their talent in a very positive way. It has helped alleviate the knowledge gap amongst students by encouraging them to work collectively, and subsequently recording and preserving their efforts, getting more engaged with the subject. The initiative serves as an excellent experiment which can be taken forward by our educators to make learning more fruitful and interactive for students and teachers alike.
#LSR #VartikaNanda #OnlineLearning #StudentContribution #DepartmentOfJournalism #Journalism
Written by Priyanshi Bhardwaj
Edited by M. Muskan Devi
Batch of 2023
Department of Journalism
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi
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