Blogging in the Classroom

The article, “In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards,” highlights many positive attributes of blogging in an educational setting. First we hear about a second grade class that blogs about a recent field trip. Using the blog allows them to respond to each other’s opinions faster than journal writing would allow and also “evens the playing field” according to the teacher who found that quiet or shy students would “come alive online.” Since blogs have become not only more accessible but more user-friendly, teachers can easily incorporate blogging into their lesson plans. The article even mentions high school teachers being able to continue conversations that were cut short in class on the Internet and post follow-up questions in real time to keep the conversations going through blogs.

Some criticisms are also mentioned in the article such as children becoming accustomed to using incorrect grammar or “e-mail style abbreviations” while blogging. I think that by introducing blogging into the curriculum, teachers have the opportunity to correct and lessen the frequency of them using Internet jargon. These kids are going to use abbreviations and poor grammar while online outside the classroom anyway, so introducing blogging into the classroom could help stop these bad habits early on. By breaking the barrier between writing online for leisure at home and writing online in a professional way for schoolwork.

I think that the points that the author made in the article to support blogging not only give incentives to teachers to expand their teaching methods, but will also motivate students to become more involved in their schoolwork. I believe it is common to hear that the way we educate our children is lacking in technological prowess and does not give students access to the technology they crave.  Kids today are surrounded by technology at home and some of their main interests revolve around this technology. Introducing blogging as a means to initiate discussions between students and teachers not only can be beneficial from a communication standpoint, but also could intrigue students to want to get on their computers and use the technology to do their schoolwork. The article highlights the ease of use and even templates for blogs that already exist to make the process as easy as possible for teachers to implement. The article ends by quoting an elementary school principal who says, “If it gets kids excited about learning, we might as well try it,” and I absolutely agree. As teachers we should always want our students to be interested in not only what we are teaching, but how we are teaching it. 

"In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards"
NEW YORK TIMES