The Whiteboard Jungle

It sounds like a blogger's ultimate ego trip - blogging about blogging. But the writing that so many CR4ers enjoy is not as simple as opening a webpage and letting it rip. That's why many educators are turning students onto a form of communication that ranges anywhere from online journaling to technical writing. And with the appropriate platform, teachers are able to inexpensively provide an online micro-community where the classroom walls are removed and students can communicate, regardless of what section they have class or what time they are free.

Why Bother with Blogging?

Besides teaching students a type of communication that is increasingly important at both the collegiate and corporate levels, there are many other advantages to having a class blog. First, it puts student work in a central location that is accessible from anyplace with an Internet connection. This means that no one has to lug marbleized journals around anymore! Blog entries are almost always time-stamped, too, allowing educators to track when responses are posted and verify that work is completed on-time.

Blogging is also another writing skill that students can add to their repertoires. It requires the integrated use of white space, subtitles, and images. It requires students to learn visio-spatial skills that enhance their writing, too. Blogging challenges writers to contemplate readability, as well as the ability to be precise and concise, yet informative and developed.

Teaching students to conserve words while using technology to advance student development can forge an excellent environment for improving reading and critical writing skills. As proof that these are real and attainable skills, a former student of mine, Deb Handy, is currently writing articles for NewYorkJets.com as an interning reporter while she completes a communication degree at SUNY Cortland.

Beyond the individual impact, I recognized blogging's value when I realized its ability to form course-wide discussions instead of class-wide ones. Students from other classes could read and comment upon each other's thoughts on topics that their own class had discussed. Furthermore, if one class's discussion grew stagnant because a majority of students held similar viewpoints, students from other classes could challenge their peers if they had come to a different consensus on the same issue. (This happens frequently enough to warrant listing such cross-class discussion as a benefit). Students could also provide feedback about what they thought of another learner's blog entry, as opposed to just receiving an educator's comments and suggestions.

If managed appropriately, blogging also provides an opportunity to have people weigh-in from all over the globe. (CR4 is a perfect example). Shared accounts can promote interaction between students in a course taught by different teachers. In my own experience, students from different schools with two cooperating teachers can communicate and learn about their cross-town neighbors in a unique academic environment;

Getting Started – Picking Your Platform

The best part of online blogging is the affordability. There is so much out there, and a large part of what an educator can use is either free or comes with a small subscription fee. Many districts have separate budget items for software and subscriptions, apart from hardware, so be sure to ask your tech chair or coordinator if there is an available budget in this area.

I've worked with a few platforms and have a colleague who uses a fourth, but that's just a few of the 2.1 million hits for "free blog" that you can find on Google. Next week, I'll preview two free blog services, a free online educational community, and two blogs/communities that come with a fee.

Related Readings (please note that hyperlinks will not work until future blogs are posted):

Part 1 – Student Blogging Communities - Blogging About Blogging? (Part 1)

Part 2 – Student Blogging Communities - Free Opportunities Are Out There (Part 2)

Part 3 – Student Blogging Communities - Pay to Play (Part 3)

Resources:

http://www.newyorkjets.com/news_author/articles_of_reporter?author_id=27