Blogging in the Classroom

As I reflect on the last school year and prepare for the next one, I find myself considering how blogging did and could work in my classroom. This past year, all of my Media Lit. students blogged. I tracked their posts in Google Reader and assigned standard journal grades. Here are some of the things that I noticed:

1. I did not see a marked increase or decrease in the number of students who did the work. Most of my seniors wrote something, although there were still those who just didn't do it.
2. I did find that it was easier to have students make up missing blogs, as all of the topics were posted online. At the end of the semester, I had two students who had not written a single blog post, even after several interventions. Both students were going to fail without this semester long assignment, so I called home (again) and gave them one more shot. It was really nice to be able to say "go to X address and email me when you've responded to all of the topics." Upon receiving their emails, I simply logged into to Google and read their posts. They both passed, without a single "I don't know what to do" or an exchanged paper.
3. There are a lot more students who don't know how to use blogging sites than I expected. I spent more time troubleshooting with some students, which bogged down things on my end. However, once they figured out how to blog, it simply became a "normal" assignment.
4. Students paid no more attention to their writing skills than they did on paper.
5. Some students really got into using the online tools. They personalized their sites, inserted links to relevant sites, found images to include, and actively commented on their classmates posts. :-)

This brings me to a major snag. One of the key factors in using blogs in the classroom is the interaction between students that it creates. I assigned commenting, which some students did do. I read some very insightful, engaged comments. A few students even ended up with threads of conversation, as intended. However, Google Reader does not track comments made on Blogger--at least not as far as I have discovered. This means that I can't easily track who is and who is not commenting, which makes grading comments very, very time consuming and difficult. Without the tangible incentive, most students don't bother to do the extra work. Honestly, I don't blame them.

So, how do I use the blogs as more than just an electronic journal?

One thought that is still stewing in my brain: Create cohorts within or between classes. Blogger allows you to have more than one administrator, so a team of four or five (larger? smaller?) could have one blog. They could rotate who is responsible for the initial post, then converse about that post. I would then track less blogs, which would make grading comments easier.

Another thought: I could play more with WordPress, as the comments posted there do show up in Google Reader. I am much more comfortable with Blogger, and feel like it is more student user-friendly.

I need to do more research about what other teachers are doing to make blogging an effective educational tool, as well. One thing that I think is invaluable about blogging, regardless of the other dilemmas: If my students don't know how to use Web 2.0 interfaces, or if they only see them as social networking tools, they will be at a disadvantage in the work force. If nothing else, teaching my students to blog empowers them to use the communication tools of the online age.