To Blog or Not to Blog...

Having discussed blogs in class today and having limited experience authoring my own blog, I have a few ideas and some opinions about blogging in and out of the school scenario.  If you are writing a blog of public interest and you feel secure enough to put your ideas out there and can do so without materials affecting you or your career in an adverse way, I highly recommend writing a public blog!  Blogging allows you to have an audience of peers who have similar interests and can add support to or challenge your beliefs or thoughts.  If you are a private person or just was to catalogue ideas or events, a private blog is a great match for you!  I know that I keep a private blog that is more like a journal for each of my kids commemorating their achievements and special moments.  It is a nice compliment to a scrapbook, but requires little prep, layout, and time.  I think student blogs are great, however I think that a lot of modeling has to take place to make them worthwhile and turn them into learning tools and not time fillers.  I recommend an assessment, most likely a rubric to evaluate student posts.  I also recommend utilizing the writing process with younger students to ensure that text-speak doesn't get applied to school work.  Writing on a student blog should be assessed with a writing rubric for conventions, focus, content, and organization as well. I think student blogs are an excellent way to do book tastings, post what is happening in your classroom through the eyes of your students, and allow students to collaborate with other students near and far.  My concerns about blogging are the lack of anonymity for students, sharing of personal information on an open site, and cyber-bullying via commentary on blogs.