Reflections on Blogging

Blogging, perhaps the nightmare of the traditional publishing house, presents a current technological trend that offers instant author status to any and all who choose to post. In many ways, a classroom blogging assignment offers tremendous potential for a 21st Century learner, but like all techie tools, the experience of blogging is only as good as the assignment. If the assignment itself lacks a connection to the standards, the skills that a teacher is focusing upon, then it can be one more educational practice that feels new and improved but in reality is only new-ish. For instance, following and reading a blog might be a very cool reading choice for a student. Then what?. . . perhaps, an assignment like the one I'm in the middle of, asking students to respond and reflect on blog posts. . . good; I like it. However, what are the expectations of the responses or reflections. Are they being evaluated with a standard of excellence in mind? We have to be ever vigilant as we explore the uses that Web 2.0 presents.
On a more positive note, three of the blog posts that I read highlighted what thrills me the most about blogging: the potential for conversation in an area of interest. In Teaching Brevity, a fourteen year old young man challenges teachers to see the potential of Tweeting as a resource for teaching the skill of brevity. Bravo! Very cool! I found a possible answer for teachers suffering the throes of creating "authentic" assignments in literacy in the blog post entitled
What Did You Create Today? Very cool student-centered questions to consider. The Time Is Now is an excellent resource for a teacher or committee who is searching for a way to pull other teachers into the 21st Century Learning concept. Designing assignments that include avenues for authentic discussion is exciting!