Blogging in Education

I recently read an article on blogging called “Educational Blogging” By: Steven Downes. It was a great article. It wasn’t too long or way over my head in technical terms. I love the quote that is at the beginning of the article, “I think it’s (blogging) the most beautiful tool of the world and it allows us the most magic thing…” – Florence Dassylva-Simard, fifth-grade student. This quote made me wonder “what’s the magic thing?” The article gives examples of how blogging is used in 5th and 6th grade classrooms and what the children and teachers have to say about its use. The comments made by the children are very intriguing. When I read this article it made me want to go and set up my classroom blog.
The article also went into specific types of blogs and how to set up a blog account. The most impressing thing about the article is the power behind what is said by students and teachers. One teacher said, “blogging has great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking skills, writing skills and information literacy among other things. Blogging offers students a chance to reflect on what they are writing and thinking as they write and think it, carry on writing about a topic over a sustained period of time, and engage readers and audience in a sustained conversation that then leads to further writing and thinking.” I really enjoyed reading this article and would encourage anyone to read it. If you are wondering if blogging is truly working for the education of children then this article is for you. I found the article online at: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1.

EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14–26.

I also found these three educational blogs that I would subscribe to and read on a regular basis. They are:
http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-teachers-quit.html
This is a blog created by an educator and has several interesting postings on hot topics in education like teachers quitting and school vouchers. This blog attracted my attention because the topics seemed interesting to me.

http://www.edspresso.com/2007/06/education_news_for_monday_june_7.htm
I really liked this blog because it has daily news in the field of education. It seemed more like a news report than someone’s opinion on the latest scandal in education.

http://eceducation.blogspot.com/
This blog was one of my favorites because it was very laid back. It was created by an educator with his masters in early childhood education. It has several postings about things that he is just thinking about and observing in education and through his personal life (he has 6 grandchildren all under 11 years old). I found the blog very helpful with everyday type things such as developmental milestones in the first three years of life.