Blogging class, new ideas

As always when you learn something new you look for ways to apply it to your life as well as your work. The class I took was not really about how to blog as much as how a blog can be used in the classroom. Right away peoples warning flags go up. How can we dare let students blog. They might say naughty words, they might tell us what is really going on in their school, they might express actual opinions. Besides the naughty word part I don't think any of those are bad. A saying I heard years ago says that: Profanity makes Ignorance Audible. I like it a lot, but back to the point. Blogs could be very useful in a classroom setting. Students could work in groups or as individuals. Te teacher posts a paragraph, a quote, or a part of a writing and the students react to it. If everyone is required to answer it could be amazing to see how some of the quiet students, the ones who wouldn't say anything in class, might react, what they would write. I know there is a bunch of garbage on MySpace and Xanga, but there is some good stuff in there as well. We need to take advantage of it. Plus students are using these tools all the time, we need to as well.