Class Blogs

Weblogs, considered something between a journal and a multigenre project, allow writers to publish their thoughts online simply by entering text. They allow writers to publish reflective posts to a responsive audience. Weblogs can be created, changed, and updated very easily. A website is considered a blog if it has a chronological ordering of posts, dated and archived posts, a function that allows for comments to be posted to an entry, and a menu or indexing feature. A couple blogging websites are www.blogger.com and edublogs.org.

Class blogs are a way to “post links and ideas, introduce new concepts, and provide students with a forum for discussion about the class” (Kajder, 2007, p. 216). Teachers can assign a student daily to post what happened in class on the class blog. The scribe’s post will relate to topics that have already been covered in class and topics that are going to be covered next. Students can use the blog to ask questions, share helpful information, and to post ideas and opinions they have about a class discussion. Blogs can be in the form of words, images, and videos. This gives students several options of how they can portray their message (i.e. students who struggle with writing can use images). Class blogs can be used for students to collaborate with expert writers, readers, museum curators, filmmakers, and screenwriters as well as other classrooms that are working on similar projects. Class blogs can also be used for peer editing and online mentoring.

Class blogs allow students to write to a responsive audience. Kajder says in her article that “writers who have real audiences listening and responding to their writing learn firsthand how writing is a communicative act; they learn to take responsibility for their words, to defend and modify them based on reactions from the real people sitting around them” (2007, p. 219). Since students have begun writing to a responsive audience, teachers have noticed that class discussions are no longer about format, page requirements, and font size but about how students really portray things.

Kajder, S. B. (2007). Unleashing Potential with Emerging Technologies. Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, 213-229.