Paper Title
PERCEIVING THE USEFULNESS OF WEBLOG AS A TOOL FOR TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract
There has been a rapid increase in the presence of various technological tools within the education sector. This has provided educators and students with a great opportunity to interact with others and work with peers in a dynamic, macro virtual world that offers opportunities for synchronous and asynchronous communication. Social interaction is a powerful way to increase teachers’ cognitive and professional knowledge. Weblogs are found to be an effective tool to support teachers’ learning (Goldman et al., 2001; Hines, 2008) in numerous contexts, such as interaction with others, personal reflection on pedagogy, and building a community of practice. The present study investigates teachers’ perceptions ofweblogs' usefulness as professional development tools. The sample consisted of six teachers who have their own weblogs. These teachers have experienced blogging for educational purposes, as expressed personally and evidenced through their blog activity. The participants were contacted via their online blogs and expressed interest in sharing their knowledge and experiences. The instrument for collecting data for this study was an email interview. This methodology provided easy access to participants who were already internet literate and comfortable with this mode of communication. The findings showed that teacher bloggers know the educational values of blogging for their professional development. The current study contributes to a better understanding of blogs' perceived acceptability and value as educational and technological tools. The recommendations are to encourage blogging within the teaching profession for development, support, and reflection purposes. Further research is also required to elaborate on the merits and drawbacks of blogging. Keywords - Weblog, Professional Development (PD), Teachers.