Preamble

Preamble
I'm very much interested in what various people say about blogging - online presences - and over the last little while have come to understand a few "truths" about blogs. Seth Godin says it best:

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"...metacognition of what you're going to write..."

Over the last few years I've been using blogs and wikis and other online environments in a number of ways in my classrooms (I've had a few). So exactly how does blogging and blogs fit into the classroom since a class blog clearly goes beyond writing for oneself? And are there other online experiences students can have that will support them in their writing?

The simplest form of blog is a fancy newsletter - it showcases what has been happening in the classroom - and it does a fantastic job - the bonus of using a blog rather than a paper newsletter is that you can embed lots of 'stuff' like music, video, slideshows etc into it. Another bonus is that parents can comment on the posts (and indeed should be encouraged to comment on the posts).

But how does this help children and their writing?

And are blogs the best environment for children to be writing in?

I don't believe there are any clear right or wrong ways of using ICTs in education, there are only the ways we have used them. There may be better ways that others have used ICTs but until a step is taken into the unknown (DRAGON TERRITORY) I/we won't find out.