A perfect example of how a teacher may utilise a blog for communication with students, parents and even ex-students can be found at Mr Wright’s Class.
In it he has everything from spelling words to pictures of field trips to appeal for parents help. By keeping an account of assignments, events etc, parents are kept informed of the happenings in class. This is a great way for communication. Go take a look.
Writing With Web Logs
Another interesting article that summarizes blogs and its advantages so well.
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/02/blogs.html
Particularly like this part:
Golub, who is also associate professor of English education at the University of South Florida, teaches future educators three central principles about encouraging student authorship: “Students will write when they have something to say, when they have an audience, and when they get feedback.”
Read the “The Challenge of Assessment” section if you need ideas on assessment.
ePortfolio (with blog option)
This is a proprietary system developed by Audree Thurman for building of an ePortfolio. Looking at the types of pages available, this will definitely gives teachers/students more choices for organising their stuff, other than just blogs.
Ways to use weblogs in education
Anne Davis took a look at the possiblities from these few perspectives:
1. creating a reflective, journal type blog to …
2. starting a class blog to …
3. encourging students to blog thru comments given to …
4. having your students create their own weblogs to …
5. asking your class to create a shared weblog to …
See the full possibilities here 🙂
Magazine online
This website hosted the M&M online magazine, featuring a collection of weblogs written by 6th grade students at Brandon Middle School in Virginia.