How Can I use blogging in my classroom and assess with it?

Assignment: Write a three page paper on how blogs can be used in the classroom, what I want my students to know, and how they can be used for assessment.

Blog Talk
Blogger:any contributor to a blog
Blogging: the processes of creating or maintaining a blog
multi-Blog: an online "conversation" taking place between several blogs

The Internet is a huge part of our students' lives. they chat on Facebook, Tweet, and Skype, among other communication methods. As teachers, we need to pick up on the creative use of this Internet technology to enable participation from our students with their learning .

One way we can do this is with an educational blog, sometimes referred to as a weblog. A blog is a web publishing tool that allows authors to quicly and easily self-publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or Web sites, and a whole array of other content. An educational blog can be a powerful and effective technology tool for students and teachers alike.

In our EDUC 932 class, we were given the task of setting up a blog. I made my blog an educational blog about our 932 class. I began documenting the daily assignments we did in this class. As I set this blog up, I realized it was basically building my own website. It had navigation links to my postings. My postings are basic text entries, like a journal, which include the date I posted the material, the title of the post, and any comments made byothers who have viewed my blog. I also included digital media on my blog. The first few entries, I inserted pictures we had taken in our EDUC class. I converted my PowerPoint to my blog. Now, I have my entire presentation on this blog. My professor asked us to save our projects to his USB storage unit, but I think it would have been just as easy for us to all give him our blog links for his assessment of our work.

Blogging is a great tool for computer savvy teachers to create a classroom that extends beyond the boundaries of the school yard. They can be quickly and easily created and maintained. With the touch of a button, you can change the whole appearance of your blog without any technical knowledge. Blogs are easily accessible. Students can access a blog at any time they have an Internet-enabled computer.

There are numerous educational benefits of blogs. One of the most important is that a blog gives students the opportunity to read and write in a medium in which they are familiar. As teachers, our goal is to get students reading and writing more. A blog can be a motivating means to get students involved that may not otherwise be participants in classrooms. It is easier to think about what you are going to write than to shout out an answer in a classroom discussion and be incorrect. Blogging gives students a way to collaborate in a non-threatening environment. It promotes differentiated instruction and addresses larger audiences. The blog would be a great way to assess the students understanding of a topic through their posts.

I have thought of ways to use my blogs in the classroom. I would want to have several different blogs. I would create one for my beginning of the year introduction and guidelines. This way, if the students lose their handout of my classroom rules, they can just check out the blog. I would make each child post a comment to my blog to show they have read it and know where to find it. This would be a way to assess if they understood the guidelines. I could also create a blog for each of my science classes. I could have a page for my syllabus, handouts, notices, homework assignments, or a way to do some bonus questions. The way I would assess the students would be to check if they did the assignment or got the notice. Additionally, to encourage the use of the blog, I would use incentives. I would post a bonus question for them to put on their next test for an extra two points. My students love bonus questions and I usually come up with very creative bonuses. I think they would feel this was a creative way to do a bonus and it would fall under a way to assess.

Additionally, blogs can be useful to the teaching professional. There are a number of blogs on literacy. One useful literacy blog is Literacy is Priceless: A Blog for Reading Teachers (http://literacyispriceless.wordpress.com). This blog is regularly updated with resources for teaching literacy. So blogs have become a valuable tool for the teaching professional. Collaboration has become a way for the educators and the students to grow.

The only real risk I see with involving blogging in the classroom is students violating boundaries or defaming their fellow classmates. Strict rules and guidelines would have to be put in place before this activity was started. Blogs can be viewed publicly or by invitation. I think the latter would be the best option for a school class blog. Once the procedures are in place, inform the parents of the procedures and secure their permission;  teach the students safe Internet practices such as not using their complete names or location when blogging; and make sure the expectations are clear regarding tone, respect, and consequences.

Blogging can be a valuable tool in the classroom if the proper protocols are in place. I am excited to get started blogging with my classes.