Educational Blogging

When I hear the the word blog, I think of a diary or the livejournal I secretly kept in high school. It wasn't until two years ago that I recognized blogs being an educational tool appropriate for elementary school. I had a revolution and realized that blogs were an excellent way for students to publish and reflect on content knowledge. This could prove to me that they knew the information (or unfortunately didn't). It was a great way to engage students and their parents with material at home or at the library. At minimum, it would encourage them to work on material after school hours or during free time at school. Sadly, I was never able to implement this in my classroom but our science teacher was. Things would start out great at the beginning of the year, but it was difficult to maintain throughout the school year and students couldn't be penalized for not doing the work if it was assigned for homework since not all students have the internet. It became apparent that students were engaged for awhile because it was new and it was technology. However, the novelty wore off, the teacher became disengaged, and the blog postings went to Hell. Instead of reading about science content, I was reading about which Harry Potter character my students were or about the Reds team. I haven't looked back at blogging since that disappointing day, but writing my own blog has given me a fresh look and encouraged me to reexamine my feelings towards educational blogging.