Blogging has become a form of self-expression, self-reflection, story-telling and interest sharing.  But blogs in the classroom? At first I didn’t see it, even after hearing about it for years, I still didn’t get it.  But then, the lightblub went on.  Ding!  I’ve got it.  Classroom blogs can do/be so much more than another way to give students homework.  A blog can be a way to build a cooperative learning environment where students read, write, challenge, debate and build shared knowledge.  Students can practice, review and apply this knowledge and together, can gain a greater understanding of their own learning and the content.  Simply by participating in a blog, students are practicing their skills and concepts they’ve learned.  From debate the end of WWII to discussing the best method for factoring, students can further their learning and create that cooperative learning that so many teachers desire.  Of course, blogging has it negatives too, especially with math, cannot summarize and provide notes for students, it cannot provide curricular alignment, and blogging cannot always provide assessment to students, although blogs can be a tool with long-reaching possibilities, it cannot always do or replace something that is done by a teacher or in the classroom.  I can certainly see the use of blogs in my classroom, especially to generate discussion on current events that relate to our study of history or to continue discussions that began in the classroom, to the web.  I think that blogging, even more specifically, can be integrated into the normal rigors of homework/practice to provide my students with a more cooperative assignment that generates deeper understanding.  Hmmmm… we’ll have to wait and see, but I hope so.

Web pages and blogs are both an integral part of the online community, however, both have different purposes and uses.  Blogs are a medium from a single point of view, often posted in the Internet by an individual and may even have a specific focus, such as cooking.  Blogs also give the viewer the opportunity to respond to posts and provide additional perspectives, create an online dialog between blogger and viewers. On the other hand web pages are sources that can display information from multiple perspectives and provide information about something to the viewer, a much more stagnant form of information, but equally important in being able to spread information around global.
Its interesting when I began to think about the differences between these two.  I didn't think that blogs had much merit in the classroom, as web pages can provide more reliable sources of information to our students, however, the longer I thought about it, I'm more intrigued about the notion of using blogs in the classroom to create dialog between teachers and students.  What are some ways that blogs have been used successfully in the classroom?  What  restrictions are there?  What benefits are there?  I'm interested to find out more.