Blogging in the Classroom

Obviously, if you're reading this, you're no stranger to blogs and the blogging process. But do you use blogs in your classroom?

Blogging in the classroom has the potential to impact you, your students, and your students' families in a HUGE way. There are also ways to blog that involve the entire school. It's a form of communication, of social networking, and of expressing ideas (all all practicing practical reading, writing, and technology skills). I am a firm advocate for blogging in the classroom! Read on to see why.

Benefits of Blogging in the Classroom

1. Students learn and develop critical thinking skills. I usually post a question (or series of questions) or a general topic students need to write about. The questions are open-ended, so no answer is a wrong answer, so long as they can defend their view.  It's critical that our students be able to think for themselves and to justify their beliefs. 
2. Students familiarize themselves with the internet. In order to even get to the blog, students need to utilize specific technological skills (getting to the website, logging in, creating a new post, etc.). Most of my students can navigate the internet for gaming or social networking purposes, but this gives them practice navigating it for educational purposes, as well.
3. Students familiarize themselves with the keyboard. This sounds like such a minute detail, but in this day and age, it's almost unheard of for a new employee (or a young one) to not know his/her way around a keyboard. To get a job these days, it's an unwritten request that a person be an adequate typist. Our society is geared toward technology, and most jobs require some knowledge of technology.
4. Students learn "netetiquette." It's essential that students understand how to conduct themselves online. This includes not only the content of their writing, but also the proper usage of grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. I have my students respond to at least 2 other students' blogs. Besides going over the regular "be nice to your neighbor" stuff, we talk about how our blogs are open for the world to see, so the superintendent, parents, or even students from across the world could read what we write. It's wise to sound as intelligent as possible when we write, so I encourage "proper" writing, as opposed to "text-speak." My students have also had to learn that TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS OFFENSIVE BECAUSE PEOPLE THINK THEY'RE GETTING YELLED AT...so some of them have changed that. :) Furthermore, if we can treat this blog like an actual assignment, maybe students will become accustomed to typing in such a manner that would mimic professional documents' writings: resumes, cover letters, scholarship applications, etc.
5. Students get more practice in the writing process. The computer is a fast way to revise (and RE-revise) your writings. Furthermore, simple spellcheck provides help with the editing, so students get used to seeing words spelled in the correct way. 
6. Students get practice at writing to a prompt (if you post prompts). Lots of state tests now require students to write to a prompt, not to mention they must do it nearly every day in college!
7. Students show their knowledge in current classroom topics (if you post questions). You can check for understanding.

These are just the benefits that popped into my head right away. I'm sure if I sat down and brainstormed for a little bit, I'd come up with several more advantages! So it's easy to see why I think blogging in the classroom is a wonderful idea.

I'm on Board; Now How Do I Start?

If you're worried about your students blogging, you can start small. You, the teacher, can create a blog and pose questions/prompts, and students can merely comment their answers. I find this useful for schools whose population is filled with kids who don't have regular access to the internet.  Simply posting comments doesn't take a lot of time, but it still accomplishes most of the above-stated objectives. For this assignment, you can use a number of blogging websites. Blogspot is popular, as is Wordpress and Xanga. I'm sure you could Google "free blog sites" and come up with quite a few others.

If you're ready to dive right in, you could check out KidBlog. I dislike the name because it sounds so juvenile, but the set-up seems to be meant for teachers. A teacher creates an umbrella blog and adds student users. Each student gets his/her own username and password. The teacher can monitor who can see the blogs (everyone? only those logged in? only those who are a part of the class?), what kinds of comments are left, etc. The teacher also has access to each student's blog, in the event of, er...questionable material (it's bound to happen).

Once you've established your blog, you just need to take care of a few things:

1.  Make sure the school district's computers don't blog the website. Sometimes blogging sites are classified as "social networking," they are blocked on campuses. 
2. Decide on the frequency in which you and/or your students will be posting. 
3. Decide on what kinds of questions or prompts (or both!) will be posted by you.
4. Decide on the grading criteria (if you plan to grade them) with which you will use to give the students credit for their blogs. I ask for a minimum word count on KidBlog, since there's a word count conveniently posted at the bottom of the posting page! You may ask for a paragraph, a full-on essay, a couple of sentences, sentence fragments...whatever. 
5. Decide when the blogs will be due each month. (I make mine due at midnight on the last day of each month.)

What are your thoughts on student blogging? Are there ways in which I can improve my students' blogging experience?

P.S. This link can give you a few more ideas as to how you can use blogging in the classroom.