Blogs and the Classroom

Reflection logs and journals have been a part of the classroom for many, many years, but weblogs are a newer spin on the old idea. Instead of reflecting on learning in a notebook, kids can post their thoughts and reactions to a topic of study on their personal blog. The benefits? They know their peers and parents can read their work, so they are more motivated to do their best. They also enjoy posting comments about their classmates' blogs. The dangers? Kids might post too much information on their blog, putting them at risk. However, many programs (such as Moodle and eSchool Builder) have private blogs. In those situations, kids are safer because only class members can see their posts. Even so, teachers should provide the students with blog safety rules because many students will blog outside the classroom.

In my class, the kids blogged on eSchool Builder about their independent reading books. It was interesting to see how they improved their work once they saw how well some other students did. I never even needed to say anything about the quality to them; they self-reflected and worked harder all on their own!