Why Blog?

The articles Blog on: Building Communication and Collaboration Among Staff and Students (Poling, 2005) and Educational Blogging (Downes, 2004) outline the use of weblogs in the classroom. Through the use of blogs, students are able to communicate with classmates and teachers and are able to share their work and thoughts with the world.  The use of blogs in the classroom not only allows students to regularly publish their work but can also help start conversations between students when responding to posts. Students are able to read posts and learn of opinions besides their own and are then able to respond and share new information with each other. For teachers, blogs can be used in place of a class webpage and have the ability to easily pass links to students for viewing outside of the classroom.  Teachers can also assign blog posts as alternatives to typical written papers or journal entries. When students are able to post responses to classroom discussions via a blog, they develop a deeper understanding of the curriculum as well as build comprehension and communication skills. These opportunities for extension beyond the classroom walls did not exist before the widespread use of computers and new technology.

Blogs can be a wonderful addition to the language arts classroom and can be used with a variety of age levels. At the elementary level, blogs are typically more teacher driven, where students would provide feedback from a teacher directed prompt or topic.  For example, students could post responses to questions from a class read-aloud, post final copies of writing samples, or provide feedback for the teacher on specific classroom related questions.  For older students the blogging experience can be more student directed. Teachers can require students to write a certain amount of posts discussing a book read in class but students may post their own feelings/responses to the text. Additionally, part of a student’s grade could be responding to other students’ work and providing constructive feedback. Or, a teacher can simply post a link on his/her blog and have students provide reactions via a discussion thread.

While blogs can be an effective tool to build comprehension and communication skills in the classroom, guidelines need to be set with students regarding what is and is not appropriate to post. A teacher must discuss with students that what they post is public and can be read by anyone. Additionally, a teacher needs to protect the identity of students and teach students how to safely use technology (not posting last names or personal information). Also, a teacher must keep in mind that not all students have access to computers at home and need to provide other options for students who do not have easy access to technology. Alternative options could include allowing a student to blog during class time, before/afterschool or renting out laptops for student use.