Educational Blogging

I thought Stephen Downes article on Educational Blogging provided a good overview of the history and use of blogging both in and outside of the classroom. He reviews how web logs started and how they have developed in their use, as well as some of the tools (hosts and applications) used to self publish. Then, he reviews the five primary uses of blogs in education which include: using blogs to adminster a class (posting class rules and assignments), using blogs to link to relevant course material, using blogs as a tool of class discussion, using group blogs for organizing seminars and posting summaries and reactions to readings, and lastly assigning students to write their own blogs as part of a course grade (like I'm doing now!). The article helped spark some of my own ideas about how I can incorporate blogs into the classes I teach.

Downes also reviews some of the challenges and problems with using blogs in the classroom. A common problem is that with students who are forced to blog, their entrys have the tendency to become vapid and empty, perhaps because they have nothing to say or respond to. Certainly, quality blogging comes from quality thinking, and some form of motivation or passion. It may not be enough to simply force to students to write a blog. Rather, I subscribe to this quote from the article... “Instead of assigning students to go write, we should assign them to go read and then link to what interests them and write about why it does and what it means.”