BP2_2009101_Educational_Uses_for_Blogs

Educational uses for blogs is rather exciting, to me. After using discussion boards and blogs through Full Sail Online, I started implementing this strategy into my 8th grade technology class planning, and am ready to implement it into my regular 6th grade science classes, too. For me, this kind of discussion and/or responding has been very engaging. I?ve needed to think ?deeper? before just replying since my words would be published. My thoughts could be easily measured with others input, even if not replied to directly. This was clearly, to me, a good strategy for low stress self-assessments.

Teachers are using blogs to share ideas that work in their classrooms and blogs are a way to express oneself and have an authentic audience (Solomon and Schrum, 2007). Solomon and Schrum (2007) point out the implications of blogs as a way for students to improve writing skills, learn from each other, improve thinking skills (like thinking through a topic thoroughly enough to form an opinion or add information), peer editing, finding others interested in similar topics, and becoming confident in sharing what they know (pg. 56).

Popular blogging tools include Blogger (www.blogger.com), WordPress (www.wordpress.com) and Drupal (www.drupal.org). But, for education purposes in a K-12 public school classroom, I prefer the blogging tools that are not public. These sites mandate teacher supervision, such as Class Blogmeister (http://classblogmeister.com) and Gaggle Blogs (www.gaggle.net) (Solomon and Schrum, 2007).

At my school site, the district purchased a class management use named, School Loop (www.schoolloop.com). Discussions and blogs are maintained within this password-protected realm. Students, parents, teachers and staff can view published blogs, and blogs can be commented on, edited and deleted or archived. As I learn ways to more easily manage the postings for grading purposes, I look forward to using this format for student collaboration, learning from each other, thinking, and becoming better writers.

Solomon, G. and Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.

© 2009, D. Cowden