What do I think of blogging for teaching and learning purposes?

I think that I would be willing to use blogging in a classroom environment. The major reason is that children are already interested in computers and allowing them to blog gives them a way to use that productively, to communicate with words and pictures. It seems students would be enthusiastic about blogging and would be motivated by having a genuine audience.

I could see myself using blogging in one of two ways. I think it would be a fantastic tool for aiding communication with parents. As in some examples I have seen online, homework assignments can be posted, as well as links for additional information. I know that sometimes parents want to help their students but aren’t sure how; I think a teacher-written blog documenting what is going on the classroom could really help with this issue. It would also be a tool for helping the teacher and the students stay organized.

Another possibility for using blogging in my future classrooms would be to have students create science blogs. Many teachers currently have students use science journals to document questions, experiments, and findings. This links science with writing and literacy, which is really important. I believe that allowing students to “publish” some of this work would be highly motivating for students. It would give them the sense of actually DOING science, instead of just filling out worksheets or reading a textbook. In the real world, success in science is based upon discovering something and then sharing it with the world. Blogging could give students a chance to do this within the classroom.