Reflection #2 - On Educational Blogging

I found a site called SupportBlogging.com, with an informative section subtitled "Educational Blogging".

http://supportblogging.com/Educational+Blogging

This section informs us that educational blogging looks at the educational process or educational interests through blogs created by students, teachers, administrators and other involved "entities". Amongst the uses for blogging in education which are examined are: 1) Teacher Communication (to students, parents, or other teachers), an accessible conduit (given both parties have access to a computer) vessel through which teachers can better elucidate what is going on in the classroom and entertain questions or concerns. 2) Dialogue Generation, questioning subject matter and, as a class, collaboratively contributing answers, thoughts, opinions, questions, etc. 3) Student Blogs, this is most similar to how blogs are used in our course - here the author makes a point of saying how unrestricted blogs are usually reserved for older students, whereas the blog community of younger students is restricted to a much smaller community.
I think that a school-wide blog could be monitored with success and still provide a diversity of opinions and discussion oppurtunities while concurrently upholding student accountability. However, I suppose we run into security problems as there is no way that I can think of that would stop students from creating a "pseudonym" through which they could post whatever they wanted, and consequently, harass and bully freely without accountability. In such circumstances, teachers and administration would have to patrol the blog and delete any such instances of cyber-bullying and ensure that personal data is not communicated onto the Web. A school-wide blog would provide a great oppurtunity to teach about responsible journalism and the lasting effect of the remarks that are made through blogs. In addition, teachers and administrators would have to keep an ear to the ground and an eye on the playground as a security measure to increase awareness of who is doing the bullying.
This section of the website also examines how teachers might use blogs to share philosophies, experiences and methodologies.
Perhaps the most informative section of the article is where it examines what blogging does for students. The author writes that many individuals are intrigued by blogs as blogs allow them to "express their ideas in a medium that appears to have life and longevity". Aside from a much larger audience for the blog posting, this seems to be a primary difference between a typical paper journal and blogging. Blogging is an enduring archive of its author's thoughts.
The article also states that blogging creates enthusiasm for writing and communication, however it does not go into detail on how it does so. One might assume it is the "cool" appeal of the technology, the aforementioned permanance of the entries and the potentiality of reaching a global audience. In addition, a more dynamic reality is brought to the classroom through this technology. Whatever the intrigue or appeal, the important thing is that blogs inherently engage students in conversation and learning and promote literacy.