Techie Teacher, Techie Teens: Blogging in the Classroom

Blogs in the Classroom: Why all students

should be "bloggers"

Teenagers? Posting freely on the Internet? Writing whatever thoughts pop into their heads? Are you crazy?

Some people consider teens to be flighty, self-centered, materialistic, and unable to carry on an intelligent conversation about relevant real-world topics. So the thought of allowing these students to share their ideas with a global community is frightening and concerning. However, it is our job as educators to teach students their mile-a-minute thoughts and ideas have power and meaning. It's our job to teach them how to harness those ideas and turn them into articulate, written words.

Many people believe that blogging is about socializing on the Internet. Conversely, blogging is about writing, reading, and facilitating 21st Century skills and literacy. If we ignore a technology that gives us a platform to combine all of these things, we are doing our students or their futures a great disservice.

All students should have an opportunity to create and maintain a blog on a regular basis.

Students should be encouraged and taught to blog because...

1. Global Audience and Authentic Writing
   Writing at school is almost always dictated by a teacher or curriculum. There is not much creativity and usually the audience for student writing is just the teacher. Sometimes students share their writing with a partner or their classmates. Either way, this does not create an authentic writing experience. When students realize that blogging creates an audience of global readers, their interest in writing increases. No longer are students trying to impress the teacher, but rather they are trying to reach out to readers who share similar interests and ideas. This type of writing is much more authentic and more along the lines of how professional writers improve their craft. Blogging allows students an opportunity to experience what "real" writing is like!

2. Student Engagement and Ownership of Writing
   Blogs can be written on anything; the list of topics is endless! This is almost exactly opposite to the type of writing most students complete in educational settings. All of a sudden, students have free choice on what to read and write about. Student bloggers take more ownership of their writing when they are able to choose a subject they have a deep interest in. Because of this ownership and freedom of choice, students find writing to be more engaging and they actually get excited about posting to their blogs! When students are engaged and see the real-world applications of writing, their writing and attitudes about writing will improve.

3. Increase in Quality and Quantity of Writing
      Lastly, students who create and maintain blogs show improvement in the quality of their writing. With traditional writing, students pay little attention to grammar, punctuation, capitalization... the general conventions of writing. They see little point to putting in effort to improve this writing trait. However, when students are encouraged to blog, they suddenly find a need to improve the quality of their writing. Most student bloggers want to be taken seriously; they want to look like they know what they are talking about. In order for these things to occur, their writing must appear academic and practiced. Additionally, a student's writing voice dramatically improves when they write a blog because they truly care about their topic. For this reason, combined with students taking ownership of their writing, blogging is a wonderful tool to help students improve the quality of their writing and the amount they are willing to write.

Valid Concerns: What about Internet safety?

Despite the strong positives for blogging in the classroom, there are many parents, school administrators, and teachers who are very worried about students being a contributing member of a global community. There are concerns about student privacy and safety, sharing of too much personal information, cyber-bullying, and possible communication with "strangers." All of these are valid concerns and should be addressed with all students before beginning a blog.

However, blogging in the classroom opens up multiple opportunities to teach digital citizenship skills and provide students with a real-world opportunity to learn about Internet safety.

When teachers begin teaching their students about blogs and how to write for blogs, they cannot skim over important Internet safety lessons. Blogging opens up essential discussions about sharing of personal information; what is too much, what is appropriate. Teachers can also provide students with knowledge on proper citation and copyright issues, and students will learn how to create and keep their digital footprint clean. One of the most important lessons that can be taught with blogging is how students can use the Internet and global users to grow a professional learning network. This will require students to know the importance of mutual and appropriate communications with "strangers." What better way to teach young learners how to properly use the Internet than through authentic and real-world application? Despite the concerns associated with blogging, the essential digital lessons associated with web logs far outweigh the initial concerns.

Clearly, blogging should be a part of a student's educational experience.