Blogger, WordPress, and Edublog are popular blogging services; there are many more. I use Blogger because it is very easy to use. Blogging is an excellent tool to show one's learning, but more than that, they are interactive. I first tried blogging with students in my English 12 class. I gave students the option of writing about their independent novel in a Blog this semester. I would definitely do this project again as I found the students were totally motivated and engaged. Besides critical thinking and reflection, students collaborated and discussed their novel on a deeper level. In addition to novel studies, Blogs can be used for a number of learning activities in the classroom, such as writing portfolios, creative writing, discussions, stories, essays, etc., which I will feel comfortable assigning in the future. Students have a voice and have fun learning and discussing. Adding links, pictures, and videos will also appeal to the visual nature of today's learners.
Blogging is also used as a professional tool. Teachers and teacher-librarians may post their learning, best practices, and reflections. For example, I like to check out Joyce Valenza's blog as she posts a lot of useful information for teacher-librarians and educators (I also follow her on Twitter). One of the most important features of Blogging is commenting. Commenting is what gets the collaboration or conversation going which allows learning to take place. It is not good enough to just agree or disagree, however, the person who comments must offer an opinion or perspective to allow a meaningful discussion to take place. Asking a thought-provoking question may also encourage discussion.
Richardson (2010) pointed out that using Blogs as a Class Portal saves a lot of time because the teacher is not duplicating lost assignments, students are aware of the due dates, and parents love it (p. 21-22). Information can be added daily to keep the blog up-to-date, unlike the school web page; information about school teams, clubs, and events can be added in a timely manner.
Blogging is also an excellent tool to use for research purposes and can be further enhanced by adding RSS feeds. For example, if a student is researching climate change, every time someone else posts about climate change, the post will be sent to the student, as well. Students must use critical analysis and evaluation skills when reading a number of sites because much like Wikipedia, anyone can post to the web. Students can check for authorship and followers to help aid in the research process.
Nowadays, there are so many people adding content to Blogs that one can subscribe to RSS feeds according to interest. RSS feeds enable the content to come to you, instead of the other way around, thus saving precious time. A person gets the most up-to-date information when it is added. One of the most popular sites for RSS feeds is Google Reader. One can subscribe to news feeds, thus eliminating the morning paper. I did not sign up for an RSS feed yet. I checked out Learning Commons and Web 2.0 blogs. I will subscribe as soon as I have more time to read feeds or as Aaron suggested, make lists so that I can read later.
The Blogging classroom could also eliminate a heavy reliance on paper in a classroom that has sufficient access to computers. Another plus to blogging is keeping in contact with parents. It all depends on the purpose of the Blog. Blogging and subscribing to RSS feeds is a great learning tool in the classroom.
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.
Great discussion on how blogging has worked for you and your English 12 students. I'm so happy that you've had opportunities to try and use some of these new tools, pedagogies, and resources while working on this class. Its enabled you to implement new knowledge and try out new ideas right away, rather than have to sit on them for an opportunity. Great reflection on where you are at with blogging and RSS and hope you keep at it!
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