Using Blogs in the Classroom

After reading the article "Don't Feed the Trolls" by Karen Work Richardson and viewing the sample classroom blog, it seems pretty obvious that blogs can be an important part of the classroom. The ability to post class notes and sample problems on the blog seem like they would be very helpful in the teaching process.

The article says that we need to teach kids the Civil Discourse, this is very important to make sure that the blog stays positive, open and educational. A place where students can post questions, without the worry of someone making fun of them for the questions that they ask. The blog would have to have the same rules as the class, where everyone is respectful of eachother and there is no sense of bravery to say somehting that you wouldn't say to someone in person.

In the sample blog, I liked how the notes from class were on there, the important dates are on the calendar in the corner and then the teacher placed some various videos and links to items that are educational and still would be interesting to the class.

In the younger grades, a blog would be the ideal place to keep parents updated on how the class was going, any homework assignments or anything else that was going on in the classroom.

It appears that blogs will be a neccessarry part of the classroom for the future. The blog can replace handouts, newsletters and homework assignments handed out on paper. The blog can post the homework and then the students can use this to sublit their homework. This seems to be the wave of the future, and I am interested to see how it will play out when I am in my own classroom.