Blogs in the Classroom

I think that blogs can be extremely useful in a classroom.  For example, I could have students use blogs to create daily journal entries in order to help them with their writing skills.  Each day if they have free time, they can take out a packet of writing prompts and start writing their prompt on a blog.  Then I can let all the students in the classroom look at each other's blogs so they can read them.  Similarly to writing, I can have them practice more writing by creating a page on themselves, sort of like an autobiography.  Of course, the sites would be set as private for each student.  Students could also respond to questions in class on blogs.  Blogs are extremely advantageous for classroom teachers.  Students could share their work online with others in the classroom, as well as gaining valuable knowledge into how to use more technology.  Blogs are also very flexible because students could use them when they are at home and log on there.  But for as good as blogs are, there are still some disadvantages.  For one thing, the teacher would have to be sure that all the blog sites are private and can only be seen by the teacher and the other students.  Also, since the students would be writing their own information, the teacher will have to be sure that the students are writing appropriate entries.  Overall, blogs are a great resource for classroom teachers to utilize with their students.