Student Blogging Idea!

I believe student blogging is an excellent idea, as it gives students freedom and creativity while allowing them to freely express themselves on a blog. More and more teenagers/children are beginning to experiment with blogs and social networking sites, so this would really relate to them and teach them to do something that they may wish to do outside of school also. As this incorporates use of technology that relates to students and teaches them how to use something that they want to learn about, I believe it would be engaging and fun for the students; a positive learning experience.

If I were to incorporate student blogging into a learning design, I would use it as a way to reflect on each students learning experiences at the end of the day. I would set my class up with a blogging account, and allocate fifteen minutes at the end of each day for students to use this as an online learning journal. I would allow students to contribute their learning experiences by encouraging them to talk about what they have learnt today, on the blog. This activity gives students freedom and can also Ive the teachers feedback; if several students create blogs saying they really enjoyed a certain activity, then teachers can consider this for future activities. Also if students say that a certain activity was boring or hard, teachers can work on improving this.

The only issue with this is privacy, disclosure and safety of the children being directly involved in a public domain, however this is easily resolved. By allowing this blog to only be accessed from school, there is no way that cyberbully's or unauthorised people could access the students information. As students would also have user names rather than their names posted, this would protect their identities.

Overall I believe this activity would really benefit the children. Not only would this engage students and allow them to express themselves, but it will work on their ITC skills, typing skills, creativity and allow them to become more independant; but it would also give teachers feedback and show parents who come in for parent/teacher interviews what the students have been doing at school.

Just some thoughts, Carissa :)