Blogging on Blogs!

With technology flooding many school districts, teachers are left in a quandary on how and when to incorporate technology. As with anything new, problems arise. Using technology, such as blogs, can change a classroom and a student’s perspective on a particular lesson or unit. As Hendron states, “the number of blogs is now approaching 100 million by some accounts,” which only means that blogging will be with us for quite some time (172). With that said, teachers need to explore and find different avenues that they can incorporate blogging into their classes. Blogging allows people access to an unlimited audience and allows the writers to voice their opinions on whatever subject they deem important. The one idea that I strive for in my classroom is authenticity, and that is precisely what blogs offer. With blogging, students can be “honest-to share personal experiences and to ultimately encourage authenticity in their writing” (153). Giving students an audience allows them to develop their own voices while feeling that there is a purpose to what they are writing. Unfortunately, too many students feel that it is pointless to write because the only person that is going to read their work is the teacher. Blogging takes that out of the equation. Students, particularly middle school students, are narcissistic. They like to know that people are reading what they are writing. So what is blogging and why is it important to the classroom, simply put, “blogs are, together and separately, introspective, public, challenging, engaging, social, and connected entities that students create” (152).

The social sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, were originally designed to make networking easier for people. However, it has evolved over its few years of existence. Many people use these sites as blogging sites. Users are constantly writing thoughts, feelings and ideas on their pages that other people are reading. And not only reading, but people also comment on these thoughts, and that is what makes this writing authentic and an attraction to people and more specifically, students.

As great as blogging can be, there are also some concerns, especially when dealing with the legalities. Teachers must be careful not to subject their students to dangers that may occur on the net. Blogging has the potential to allow a student’s personal information to be publicized on the internet. I find it difficult to believe that many districts will allow students to blog in school. First, too many filters must be turned off to allow that to happen, which will allow other unwanted material in. Secondly, by allowing students to blog in school, the districts are opening themselves up to possible lawsuits if something does happen. I don’t think blogging will become an integral part of schools until we begin teaching students to be responsible internet users instead of simply blocking everything with filters. By using filters, we are not educating the students on what to do if they come across a bad site, or if someone asks for personal information. If students learn to trust filters, they will never learn how to handle different situations that may arise while using the internet.