Using Blogs in the Classroom

I am only necessarily familiar with blogs because of my interest in sports. Blogging has become a large part of society, but an even bigger burden on the sports world. The article titled "Don't feed the trolls" summed up quite well my hesitance and distrust for many blogs. There truly is a very negative and divisive culture when it comes to blogging. While it is a great way to share ideas and opinion's, the sense in such a cynical society is to try and discredit and tare down other's ideas. However, the example blog you gave us from the math teacher was quite impressive. What a interesting and unique way of sharing information between students and teachers. This also addresses the concerns I wrote about in my essay this week in terms of available technology. Not all students have the luxury of access to a computer outside of school. However, using this blogging tool allows the student to access information at any time of their choosing. If a student is without a personal computer, they still have the ability to use resources at school to view the same information. Because blogging moves us out of a time sensitive ideology students are allowed to freely roam information at a time of their choosing. This I think could be a tremendously valuable tool for me as a teacher. As long as you clearly define and layout the rules for your students in terms of blogging you could make great use of this technology. Students can post their own ideas or questions which in turn can be answered by the teacher or even other students. This sense of a free exchange of ideas and information could be invaluable for a teacher because of the restraints of a class period. Information that was not given in class could be posted and viewed with the simple click of a mouse in the students free time. I think this would allow me to supplement my lessons greatly. Instead of tediously working our way through a specific unit I could post this unit online and let the kids learn and discuss it themselves.