Blogging in the Classroom

There are endless possibilities when it comes to blogging in your classroom. For me I really see the benefits of using it as a reflection tool. I was never really asked to reflect much in my primary experience and I think that's made it harder for me as an adult. Not that every student from my classroom needs to be an avid journaler, but I really think self-reflection is an important tool to have under your belt. Being able to honestly evaluate yourself will make you a more successful student and life long learner. However, I recently noticed the video option on blogger.com. This got me thinking about the ease of use of flip-videos and I began to imagine the possibilities. I think self reflection for me is a much easier task to discuss verbally and we want to accommodate many different learning styles in our classroom. On television we are bombarded with reality shows where they have the characters talk directly to the camera in a 'confessional' style. Why not try this in our classroom? Or at least give students the option to discuss their feelings on a book, or about whatever topic you want them to journal, with text-blogging or video blogging?! There are absolutely times when I feel writing is an important task and blogging is a great way to work on this skill, but there are times, or students, where the task would be more easily accomplished with a video.