EduBlogs

Blogs could be a great tool for use in schools. Teachers can use them in their classrooms to have students share their thoughts or answers to a topic or question. Blogs are especially useful because they allow students to see what others are thinking as well as give each other feedback in the form of comments.

Wikis are a great tool for students to create a shared project, but blogs are great for students to contribute their own individual ideas, while still being able to learn from their classmates’ ideas.

Here are some ideas for using blogs in education:

• Use a blog as a class website where the teacher shares classroom news, favorite websites, educational videos, & more. The teacher can also use it to organize class activities or parent volunteer schedules. For example, the teacher could create a post for the Valentines Day party stating that cupcakes, napkins, & juice are needed. Parents could respond & say if they can bring in those items.
• Students can have online class discussions & give feedback to each other on topics or projects.  *See my edublog below for an example.
• Use a blog instead of a school or class newsletter to communicate with families. Less paper = more green!
• Educators could use blogs to share lesson plans, favorite websites, tips, & more with other teachers.
• Telecollabrative projects: Students can work with students from other schools on projects or topics.

If you are interested in learning more about blogs, here is a link to a short video overview of blogs called "Blogs in Plain English". Here is an educational article about blogs that includes advantages, risks, & steps to get started.

Here is an example of an edublog that I created for my class. Because of the privacy settings I created a Jing screenshot of the welcome page. I plan on having the students use this blog soon because we are just starting our biography unit.