Why do I have my students blog?

Last year, I had my students create blogs for the first time, but I did not have them blog. Instead, I had them post assignments, such as reading responses and maybe their multigenre essay, to their blogs.

How is blogging different from that? Blogging requires regular posting. Blogging requires readers. Blogging requires the author to make choices about what to blog about. That is, a blog needs a blogger. Not a student posting a few random assignments.

Why am I making them do this? Here are five reasons.

5. Blogging gives students a chance to write for real readers. And to get feedback from readers.

4. Blogging allows students choice over what they write about.

3. Blogging gives students a way to get to know each other through their writing. It could--maybe, hopefully--foster a sense of community in class.

2. Blogging allows students to incorporate different media, especially images (see above), into their writing.

1. Blogging is fun. I won’t kid myself into thinking that everyone is going to love doing this. But it will give everyone a chance to write in a forum that is not graded. It will give everyone a chance to write for the sole purpose of communicating.

My main motivation for this was the feeling that last year I missed an opportunity with my students, that we just didn’t get that much out of the blogs because we didn’t really use them as blogs. This time I’m trying something different. We’ll see how it goes.

Note: Photo by Pascal. Source: Flickr.