Blogs can give students a totally new perspective on the meaning of voice. As students explore their own learning and thinking and their distinctive voices emerge. Student voices are essential to the conversations we need to have about learning.
he worldwide audience provides recognition for students that can be quite profound.
The classroom teacher, instructional technology specialist, and blogging teacher had to create a purposeful learning environment for blogging and build a community that fostered respect and inspired students to want to continue to learn and blog about it.
Student groups brainstormed the things they had learned about blogging and created visual representations of their learning.
To get students started, we gave them writing prompts that covered current events, topics they were learning about in class, books they were reading, and passions they pursued
students posted once a week, during the blogging class
gave them comment starters such as "I wonder …," "After reflecting on your post …," "Another thing to consider is …," and "I don't understand …".
Students came to understand that grammar, punctuation, word choice, style, and syntax were not just a "teacher thing" but rather the means for effective communication