A blog, according to Wikipedia, is “(a contraction of the term ‘weblog’) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. ‘Blog’ can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.”

Blogger is the blogging tool owned by Google. It is fairly easy to use, and can incorporate multiple authors, making it ideal for classroom use. It can be personalized with different themes. You can also follow others’ blogs on a blogger account, allowing students and teachers to follow other classes’ blogs, perhaps even from across the world.

All one needs to set up an account with blogger is an email address, a catchy name, and the internet. The teacher can be the administrator of the blog and send invitations via email to students, who can then log on and post individual posts or comments on others’ posts.

A teacher may want to create a set of “blog rules” that outline fair behavior by student posters. For instance, students should be respectful of each other’s work and consider “constructive criticism” rather than what might be construed as harsh criticisms. This would be an excellent “teachable moment,” so that teachers can discuss what constructive criticism is and what it would look like on the blog. Further, inappropriate material should not be placed on a classroom blog. A rubric for posts may also be helpful for students and teachers to know how posts will be evaluated.

Ms. Miller has a pretty standard blog. She presents an idea that the class talked about during instructional time and asks the class to continue the discussion. She insists on correct grammar in the posts. Ms. Miller also posts notes and graphic organizers from class. Her blog is continuous from the previous years, and she even posts a good-bye picture of the previous class. She has archived posts about vocabulary and test reviews. In one post, she tells students to write either an essay or a series of three blog posts on utopia in Farhenheit 451. This is a great basic example of how to use a blog in an English classroom.

http://millersenglish10.blogspot.com/

In this wiki, a former William and Mary master’s student is connecting her English 12 classrooms with the William and Mary Adolescent Literature class to discuss two books, The Chocolate War and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The teacher posed three questions on each book, and the English 12 students responded. Then the William and Mary students responded to the high school students posts, expanding and asking more questions.

This is an example of using a blog for diagnostic purpose. The high school students responded to the books without discussing the books in class, thereby allowing the teacher to see the students’ individual opinions on the book before a “class consensus” can be reached.

You must be invited to join this wiki; however, we included it because we thought it was a great example of a way to utilize blogs in the classroom.

http://freedomreaders.wikispaces.com/

Matt uses his blog to post the audio from his class and gives a brief summary of what they talked about. This would be helpful for students who miss class or have a hard time taking notes. He also posts assignments that students might have missed. He also uses his blog to get feedback on what the class thinks about the lessons and how they can be improved.

http://www.mattsclass.com/

This is an older example (the teacher has since moved her blog to the Edublog site), but demonstrates how blogs can be used to create community in a classroom. The posts are basically journal prompts (“What is your favorite haunted movie? What is your favorite haunted house? Do you have an experience to share that scared you silly?”) that students answer. They can see each other’s posts, which allows them to learn about each other in a way that might not be possible in class.

http://mtnbrookseniors.blogspot.com/

http://mrscaldwell0.edublogs.org/

Students can develop writing, reading, and communication skills, which are required to be covered under most state standards in English. Blogs allow students to share ideas and builds a student-centered classroom rather than a teacher-centered classroom. Students not only can post about academic subjects (i.e., how is Beowulf an epic?) but also on interests. You can even do both on the site, allowing students to combine academic interests with their own personal interests. For instance, sharing a poem, short stories, movie reviews, or videos, all within the appropriate boundaries set by the teacher.

Some schools or parents might have privacy issues (for instance, at Freedom High School, students’ names cannot be posted). Students may not post because teachers are not present to insist on completion. If a student feels material is sensitive, s/he may not feel comfortable posting on a public forum. You cannot control what students post immediately—constant policework might be required of the teacher, i.e., inappropriate song lyrics. Since it is not done in class, someone without access to the internet might have more difficulty completing the assignment.