Why students should be blogging

Top Ten Reasons to Blog

 Give students voice & audience
 Extend the walls of the classroom
 Build skills for digital future
 Engagement
 Write to learn/blog to learn
 Ownership
 Participation
 Creativity
 Collaboration
 Empowerment
Why students should be
blogging
 Give students a voice and an
audience:

For shy students blogs give them a

safe way to say what they think and
feel and gives them a chance to be
heard
Extend the walls of the classroom:

Students can become digital pen

pals with other students across
the world

They have the opportunity to

share with others outside the
walls of the school…making the
entire world their classroom
 Give them skills useful for their
digital future:

Students learn how to use digital

technology they will need as they get
older in order to have jobs, do their
banking, shopping, communicating
etc.
 Engagement:

Gets students excited about learning

by engaging them in a way they are
familiar with

Students are already blogging so

teachers should utilize the
technology to make learning fun
Help students write to
learn/blog to learn:
The more students read, the better they better and
the more they write, they better they write

Students can work on proofreading and editing

their work if they know it will be seen by their
peers

Students engage in verbal discussions all day

long, having them engage in written discussions is
just more practice with the written language
 Ownership:

Makes students take responsibility

for what they say and how they say it

Teaches students to be good digital

citizens
 Participation:

Gives students a chance to participate in

discussions cut short or dominated by
others

Some students just don’t get a chance to

participate in class and blogging gives
them that chance
Creativity:

Allows students to
express themselves
in writing in ways
they might not feel
comfortable sharing
in front of their
peers
 Collaboration:

Allows students to work with others

in a less threatening environment due
to anonymity
 Empowerment:

Gives students the chance to feel

good about their work

Positive feedback can be

powerful tool
Outside the Lines
 Blogging can be used in place of
traditional journals to save time, money,
allowing for immediate reactions by
teacher and opening up discussions with
other students

 Blogging allows for discussions outside

the normal classroom walls and school
hours
 Blogging allows students to write when they
might otherwise be talking

 Allows students to be more creative when

telling stories

 Far more interactive than written work as

students can post reactions to other students
work, opening up thoughtful discussions

 Discussions can take place anytime and for

however long students remain engaged
Works Cited
 Selingo, J. (2004, August 19). In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin
Boards. The New York Times. Retrieved from
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=
9C04E5D7113FF93AA2575BC0A9629C8B63

Rachel Boyd. Why Let Our Students Blog retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVK4dGNRdQY&feature=related