Blogging: The Price is Write
As a young high schooler in the mid 00's, I got to witness the rise -arguably the peak- of blogging. Blogs were originally structured as diaries by the early internet pioneers in the mid 90's. The format followed sharing personal opinions, or thoughts, inserting relevant links, and eventually commenting on others' posts. By 2003, Google purchased Blogger, one of the earliest platforms, and was able to transform blogging from hobby to profitable source of income (Bragg, 2003). For the first time, people were not just sharing out their thoughts, recipes, or latest workplace drama for the kick of it. Blogging went from a Sunday night pastime spent reflecting on the week... to a highly monetized marketing strategy. According to Demand Metric, "Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don't blog,".
Still to this day, the lessons I remember the most in school were project based. I recall when my english teacher allowed us to use a blogging platform of our choice (I used wikispace). She had us write blog entries as if we were the characters from the books in our class readings. (If only I had saved those blog URLs - they would have made for a long and cringey laugh at my former writing). I remember how fun it was showing my classmates my work, and even more so how interesting it was to *become* the character.
References
It's no secret that blogs are useful in business, but how do they compare in the educational setting?
Still to this day, the lessons I remember the most in school were project based. I recall when my english teacher allowed us to use a blogging platform of our choice (I used wikispace). She had us write blog entries as if we were the characters from the books in our class readings. (If only I had saved those blog URLs - they would have made for a long and cringey laugh at my former writing). I remember how fun it was showing my classmates my work, and even more so how interesting it was to *become* the character.
Looking back at my student self, in the shoes of now educator, I can see how blogging was one sure way of bridging my familiar usage of the internet with academics. Another way to engage students through blogging is to have a class blog where each students takes turns being the 'scribe' in the class period. They can post the class notes, announcements, or what was covered during class on that particular day. Mainly, blogging can give a classroom a greater sense of digital community. Students can share pictures or observations, they can share research and links to class related articles, or provide feedback to one another in the comments section (Kilica & Gokdasb, 2014). With strong and clear expectations on the purpose of the blog, students will participate in a judicious manner, sharing a sense of effective communication in one of the most dynamical digital spaces.
Kilica, E., & Gokdasb, İ. (2014). Learning through Blogging: Use of Blogs to Enhance the Perceived Learning of Pre-service ICT Teachers. Educational Consultancy and Research Center. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://eric.ed.gov/
Bragg, A. (2003). Blogging to learn . California State University, Sacramento. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/stonerm/blogging_to_learn.pdf
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