Benefits of Class Blogging

This post comes from a new class blog in Australia – Tipperary Station. It is great to see such enthusiasm and energy. If you are thinking about blogging, this may help make up your mind!

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Blogging is a wonderful tool to connect, collaborate and reflect on our learning. Some benefits to educational blogging include:

• Expectations have been transformed. Students expect more of themselves. They no longer create just for the teacher audience, but they create for a world audience.

• Students are more reflective about their own learning because of their blogs. They are able to look at their learning, think about the process, and then write about the experience. Feedback goes beyond our classroom walls. When someone from another state or country comments, the children are excited to read and write for their audience and are more motivated than ever to participate in real and authentic learning opportunities.

• Students love seeing their work online and love getting comments from friends, family and other students in other classrooms around the world. It motivates them to write as it gives them an audience that is real. I think they find it hard to be motivated when they know the writing is just going in their books and will only be read by themselves, the teacher and their parents. The blog opens up a whole new world of people who can offer encouragement and feedback.

• There is an authentic audience – a global audience – one that is willing to connect, share, challenge, discuss and communicate with us. This audience can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions etc which pushes their learning further.

• Blogging is a confidence builder. Students are tremendously proud to have their work on the blog. There is still a bit of disbelief in their eyes when they open our site and see their name with comments. The fact that they type with their own fingers and have people around the world consider those words important enough to comment makes them feel super special. The more people delivering that message to our students, the better.

• Blogging teaches correct online etiquette and digital citizenship in real time and real life. Can’t get any more authentic than that!

• A class blog strengthens home-school relationships, partnerships and communication. A class blog can provide a virtual window into the classroom. Parents who are busy at work during school hours can log on at night or on the weekend to check out the learning their child has participated in that day or week. Never before has the parent-teacher partnership to education been so strong. Family members in other states and even countries can see the child’s learning, class projects, interests and inquiries and post comments too!

 

What are some of the benefits you see to educational blogging?