Distributing:
At its most basic blogging is done for the purpose of quickly and easily
distributing information to others. In the context of education this means
distributing information to students and their parents. That information could
be anything from assignment due dates to course notes to articles and videos
that supplement your classroom instruction.
Discussing:
This is where blogging becomes more than just an exercise in disseminating
information. As a teacher you can post prompts to which your students write
replies in the form of comments. Better yet, make students authors on a blog and
have them post prompts for their classmates to respond to. The prompts could be
in the form of a reflection written by a student, a thought-provoking article
from the web accompanied by questions, an image, a video, or perhaps an embedded
VoiceThread.
The great thing about using blogs for classroom discussions is that it
provides students with more time to reflect on what they're being asked before
sharing their responses. Blog discussions also provides a forum for shy students
to express themselves with written words instead of possibly staying out of a
in-classroom conversation.
Demonstrating:
By making students authors on a group blog or by having them maintain their
own individual blogs they can demonstrate what they've found through research,
what they learned, and what they have created to demonstrate their learning. In
other words, your students' blogs become digital portfolios of what they have
done in your classroom. One of the benefits of putting these portfolios on the
web is that other students can view and learn from them. Another benefit is that
now other teachers, school administrators, and your students' families can
quickly discover the great work your students have done.
Discussion Point- Why do you want a classroom blog? What purpose will it serve for you and your students?
