Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

Since I will presenting my world famous Blogging Across the Curriculum session at the SOITA Conference on Wednesday, my mind is on blogs and as a result this post will be full of blogging resources.

• The Presentation: First is a link to my presentation on SlideShare. Unlike the last presentation I uploaded, I have added some annotated commentary to each slide in the comments section.
• Resources from the presentation.

Why blog?

This past week a parent contacted me through email about classroom blogging. She was frustrated about an assignment that her child was having trouble completing on his blog. Her message was very long and, in a nutshell, expressed her objections to blogging in the classroom. The ensuing dialogue we had got me thinking about why I think blogging is such an effective teaching strategy. I brainstormed the following list:

• Blogs support inquiry-based and project–based learning
• You can use blogs to develop an online community that extends beyond the classroom walls
• Less paper – for the teacher and the student
• The comment link:
• Feedback is in front of students so they can use it immediately
• Students can get feedback from multiple sources: parents, teachers, students, etc.
• Students can find new sites and link to them
• Blogs bring the digital world to the classroom
• Makes work public—parents, teachers, school community can see entries
• Classroom blogs make for quick and easy assessment
• Students can learn from each other
• Students can collaborate with each other
• It gets students writing in mathematics
• Assignment possibilities are endless:
• Scribe posts
• Expert posts
• Podcasts
• Photo Journals
• More…
• Teachers can easily create Webquests with them
• Blogs require no technical skill (i.e. programming or coding skills)
• You can use blogs to create digital portfolios
• A blog can act as a discussion forum
• Dated entries make it easy to create a journal from a blog
• If caution is used, blogging is extremely safe for students

Can you think of more? Please list them in the comments.


Check out: Digital Cameras in the Classroom | Spreadsheets in the Classroom