What's a Blog?

 

A blog is an easy to use website where you can quickly post information and have other people comment on that information. A prominent education blogger (Will Richardson - http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ ) refers to it as the “Read-Write Web” – which I think is a very good way to think about it for education.

 

From somewhere (I’ve lost the source)

Weblogs provide teachers and students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate in new and exciting ways. A blog (short for weblog) is an interactive web page where individuals can post entries, articles, links, and pictures, and ask others to join into conversations. For educators, they are a way to expand the boundaries of learning. Teachers can post entries for students, parents, and for professional development purposes. Students can engage with others in their community or around the world. Work can be published to an authentic audience. Blogs are easily adaptive into most curriculum areas. They are relatively simple to use, can be accessed by anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection, and content can be published online in a matter of minutes.

 

Educators around the country have started using blogs in a multitude of areas:

 

  1. Information/Communication Tools:
    Teachers can post student writing, artwork, information about homework, upcoming events. Parents can have access to events and projects in your classroom.
     
  2. Online Filing Cabinets:
    Students and teachers can use a blog as a place to store assignments, links, plans, and handouts.
     
  3. Collaborative Tools:
    Students can extend conversations outside of the classroom, and collaborate with invited guests from around the world and from within the community.
     
  4. Literature Circles:
    Book clubs can involve students and parents, or students from other communities.
     
  5. Online Discussions:
    Blogs can work as a discussion group for students and staff in every discipline: Science to reflect on labs, Social Studies for current events, English for prewriting on central themes of novels, etc.
     
  6. Professional Development:
    Teachers can use blogs as portfolios or as an archived discussion of their practice, both formal and informal.
     
  7. Writing tools:
    Students can have interactive electronic journals or post completed works to an authentic audience.