Blogging In The Classroom

I think blogging can be very useful in the classroom. For example, as a teacher, I could start by posting about something we might be covering in class and give a general introduction to it. With a blog, students can comment back with connections they have, questions, or more information they might already know. As far as students using a blog, they also can receive immediate feedback from peers as well as the teacher. The interactions that occur with blogs are the most valuable thing that comes from blog posts, at least in my opinion. I feel blogs are a lot less pressure than papers and written documents. They are more relaxed and less formal. This is not to say the language isn't as good, it just means it's more free flowing. I think there is a lot more opinion in blog posts and it can be useful to really dig into what a student thinks and feels. In order for blogging to work in a future class, I think it needs to be done in class rather than for homework. In order to avoid problems, blogging for homework might not be the best choice. Computer access might be hard for some students outside of the classroom. Therefore to avoid any trouble at all, time in class to review each others blogs and write posts would be the most efficient. With that being said, however, if a student does have access to a computer, at any time, they can log on and view everyone's post. Maybe they could refer to them when they are stuck on homework or just couldn't remember a fact or two. That's what makes blogs the most useful, they are accessible with a click of a button.