Blogging in school offers a wide variety of opportunities for educators to get their students to communicate, collaborate, and participate in class activities. Richardson (2010) explains that blogs “can also be interactive, allowing teachers and students to begin conversations or add to the information published there” (Richardson, 2010, p. 10).
As of yet, I have not used blogs in the library. I look forward to next year when I introduce blogging with the new Destiny Quest library system. In Destiny, students can blog about the books they are reading in the library as well as, if the teacher chooses to use this tool, about other subjects and projects. Blogging in Destiny is only open to the school and eliminates the possibility of random people commenting on student work. I particularly like this feature of the program because as Richardson (2010) discusses, “With blogs, for instance, the ability for people to leave comments can be very powerful and positive learning tool. If, however, there is unchecked access to the commenting on a student site, it may open up the door to inappropriate or irrelevant feedback” (Richardson, 2010, p. 14). In Destiny Quest, the librarian, teachers, and administrators can monitor all student emails, blogging, and suggestions. I am more comfortable with an in school blog than a blog that is open to the public.
Safety is a very important topic when considering using blogging in schools. Egbert (2010) discusses the need for a school safety policy and a list of rules for students to follow. I agree with Egbert and would follow such a policy and set of rules before beginning a blog open to the public with my students. I would be interested to hear how others have gone about this.
References
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms, 3rd. ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
