How can blogs be used in the classroom

The topics could come from real readers, or the site creator could just make them up based on common problems they know people have.

Just like with a research paper or a presentation, a good blog will have a clearly defined focus. Here are some considerations:. I strongly recommend you use a single-point rubric for assessing blogs; share the criteria with students ahead of time or better yet, co-construct the criteria with them.

Below are some criteria I think would be important to include in a rubric for student blogs. And one of the most popular delivery systems in the 21st century is the blog. Come back for more. Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. Over 50, teachers have already joined—come on in. Categories: Instruction , Podcast. Tags: distance learning , English language arts , project-based learning , remote learning. Greetings from Brazil!

I love your newsletter and your blog. Thank you for the material! I teach in Legal Courses and they are very useful. Last year I cited one of your posts in a book that I wrote with a colleague. Thanks for this and all your podcasts. They have allowed me to think creatively about teaching during a pandemic instead of just being filled with fear and dread.

I always love the idea of bringing the real world into the classroom, and blogs can certainly do that for students—especially if they have good examples that will motivate their own work. One thing to be careful of, however, is the fact that everything a student posts will be online for anyone to see forever, unless they take it down. That means that the idea they thought was cool when they were 15, or that controversial opinion they held when they were figuring out who they were, will be available to colleges, future employers, or just future classmates.

Hi Dave! These are all great points — thank you! Even so, these are really important digital citizenship discussions to have with students whenever they are sharing anything online. Thanks again! This post rocks! Thank you so much for inspiring and informing so thoroughly!

I teacher at a small charter school in northern Cali and I look forward to using student blogs as we go all online. Thank you so much for this post, it really has me thinking about how I could use blogs in my classroom. Even though this post may be directed to older students I can see potential in using blogs with my Grade 3 classroom. I am wondering if you or anyone else has used blogs with this young of an age group and if you have any tips or tricks in helping them develop it? I am fairly new to the blogging world but like the idea of having a place for students to highlight and reflect on their work.

Thank you so much for any insight you have to share! I would like to have my students try writing a special interest blog this semester during remote learning.

I am trying to find appropriate models for them to look at as an introduction to blogging, but I am having trouble finding ones that are good models but are not too sophisticated or professional-looking which will probably intimidate them. Do you happen to have any examples that may point students in the right direction? Honestly, my suggestion is to use Backward Design to create your assignment and then Dogfood your assignment.

Students are used to writing and communicating in the digital landscape whether it be Twitter, FaceBook, Tumblr, or email. Students have the opportunity to practice writing and analytical skills in their own blogs that will transfer into essays and other writing endeavors.

Creating a blog can be a bridge for students between the familiar digital world and what is being asked of them in academic essays, projects and other university-based assignments. Blogging can be seen as a gateway experience for students who will likely be using digital technologies and media in their future endeavors regardless of their discipline. Several user-friendly blogging platforms are commonly used in classrooms. No one platform is better suited to a specific discipline. Mostly the choice depends on your comfort level and personal preference when trying out each platform.

For example, Tumblr works well for sharing images, quotes or brief chunks of text, or consolidating and linking to other sites. Faculty and students appreciate the extensive how-to support features and video tutorials available on the WordPress site. Both Blogger and WordPress allow for text, images and video; for instructors, a better distinction might be that WordPress allows for sorting posts by author, which Blogger doesn't currently.

Please see Tech Support section below for more information. A class blog or individual student blogs could be completely private and classroom-based, with the only users and viewers being you as the instructor and your enrolled students. A class blog also may be completely public and accessible to anyone online. The benefit of making a site public is that it creates a broader sense of audience and of participating not only in the university community but perhaps a global community as well.

However, if the site is public, be aware of copyright issues when posting articles or class readings; CTools is a more secure location for sharing copyrighted material. What follows is a little advice about each of these components:.

Clear expectations: Students thrive most in blog conversations when they understand from the beginning what the purpose of the blog is i. Your prompts should address matters of both content and timing:. Instructor Participation: A good balance between facilitating and controlling the blog can motivate your students to participate most productively.

Research shows that instructor prominence or high activity can stifle student participation. Teaching with Blogs. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. What is a blog? Why teach with blogs? Examples of course blogs at Vanderbilt Important decisions for teaching with blogs Other considerations for teaching with blogs Get started blogging at Vanderbilt Additional reading What is a blog? Here are three of the most important decisions for teaching with blogs: What dynamic will there be between blog and classroom?

Other considerations for teaching with blogs Articulate clear rules before you start It is important to clearly communicate the expectations for the blog before you begin. Additional reading David I. Hanauer and Erin L. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, Blogging — An introduction to reading and writing a weblog: Blogs — anatomy, Blogs — why read, why write.

Hours: a. Monday - Friday. Loading Comments Online class enrollment, for instance, increased by 4. Previous research projected that at least 25 million students would be taking an online course by Read on to learn more about the state of blogging in the classroom in If you sought definitive feedback on how many classrooms, teachers, and students currently use blogging, the question would probably yield few well researched statistics.

The concept continues to emerge and not a lot of research has been done on the subject. Edublogs , a leading educational-oriented blogging platform, however, is one institution that has researched the topic.

Each year Edublogs surveys educators and students to learn more about those who are using blogging in the classroom. The survey has yet to be reported on, but research findings have something to say about the state of blogging in the classroom today. In this research, The Edublogger team surveyed respondents. Sixty-four percent were teachers, 11 percent were students, and the remaining percent were a mixture of educators such as principals and coaches.

The majority of respondents 71 percent were in the public school system. Additionally, 37 percent were at the elementary level and 24 percent were at the high school level. Additional research showed the benefits of blogging in the classroom, how blogs are being used, and what platforms educators are using.

Blogging in the classroom can have numerous benefits depending on how you use your blog.