Benefits of Blogging

Blogging is becoming increasingly popular in k-12 classrooms all over the world.  Many teachers are using blogs as a way to enhance student learning and increase motivation to "write".  Blogs are beneficial for many reasons, including motivation, discussion, and collaboration.

Motivation:
Many students are highly motivated when they can use technology as a learning tool.  When students are given opportunities to share their thoughts and discussions through blogs, they are typically more interested in providing higher quality work.  They are also more motivated to understand the audience they are speaking to and blog with a more authentic purpose.

Discussion:
Many students love to participate in classroom discussions, yet they always have to come to an end.  With the use of blogs, discussions can continue after school hours and can go on for weeks.  Also, the students who prefer to stay quiet during classroom discussions, sometimes feel more comfortable discussing their thoughts through blogs.  The amount of discussion that can take place through a blog can be surprising to many teachers and highly beneficial for students.
Collaboration:
Even though many blogs are individual, students can create blogs as a team or be grouped a certain way for blog responses.  This helps build collaboration with peers and also helps students with online social skills.



Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom
Blogs in Education

Why Let Students Blog? - Video