Educational Value of Blogging

I feel that blogging could very beneficial in any school setting. The first benefit that I can see is that it encourages children to communicate with one another. Children that would not normally speak up in class could blog sharing their ideas and express their views about the ideas of others. Another benefit that I can see is that it allows the children to step outside the walls of their own classroom. They could do a book study and actually share their ideas with the author of a specific book, or share ideas with children from another part of the country. Often are ideas are limited to our environment, so including students in different parts of the country helps to expand our ideas. I believe teachers should monitor blogs, but should not intrude in the conversations. Teachers should teach their students about appropriate discussions and language and ensure a safe environment for discussions.
Teachers can also use blogging for communication with parents. Newsletters and/or experiences that happen in the classroom can be published to the blog. Parents could reflect on learning that they see happening in the classroom and question new learning as it is occurring. The teacher could provide websites to help with student learning at home. I think parent communication on a blog would be a benefit for teachers.