The Classroom and the Blog

I feel like with that title I am about to tell a tale about a valient hero and an awful villian. However, not about to take that route.

After reading this article about blogs in the classroom, I realized that blogging is an extremely useful and modern tool for students in the classroom. Blogs are a much easier venue for students and teachers alike to express their ideas and to reviews each other’s work. I think it also makes students a little more weary of waht they are saying. Anyone can see what they are writing. Not to mention, in today’s day and age, students also have this obsession with making their private lives public, as the article details. This can be a positive idea when it comes to motivating students, especially since this generation’s kids are pretty lazy at times. It may be more appealing that their work will be online, for all to see, much in a way that MySpace and Facebook serve their purpose.

It is also interesting that this article includes the opinions of writing teachers in which they support this way of expression. Look at our class, we can look at each other’s work and comment on it. We can post things that are relevant or funny. It doesn’t really matter what ends up on there. They also address the idea that at times students would like privacy, and therefore things such as Blackboard have come into existance, plus some blogs allow students to decide if they would like their posts to be private or not. This allows still for students to participate, but not necessarily letting the world see it.

Overall, I like the idea that this article proposes. I think that blogs should be and can effectively be integrated into the classroom.