Blogging in the Elementary Classroom

Blogs in the Elementary Classroom can be a great resource for teachers, students and parents. A great way to use blogs in the classroom is for students to help each other with homework through a homework blog. Students can utilize blogs to post questions, concerns or useful tips about their homework. This is a great tool for students because it is allowing students to interact and help each other, instead of always resorting to the teacher for the answers. Blogs can also be a great tool when used as a classroom page. Using blogs as a classroom page allows students and parents to communicate with teachers in a number of ways. Teachers can post upcoming events for the school or the classroom, as well as homework assignments for each night. Parents can communicate concerns or praises with the teacher, and students can ask questions or look at assignments they may have forgotten. This is a great resource for everyone because it provides a new form of communication for everyone, which is both fast and hassle-free. Finally, blogs can be used as a mentoring tool for all students in school. An older student could be paired with a younger student as part of a mentoring program. The students could blog to each other about themselves, school, homework, etc. This blogging could be a great help for both students because they are learning about technology, getting answers to their problems and fostering a new relationship in a different way. There are many advantages to blogging in the Elementary Classroom. Blogging allows students to utilize a new kind of technology to solve every day problems, access information and build new relationships. Blogging has its advantage because elementary students are born into a technology-driven world, so it is only natural that students have access to technology in the classroom, such as blogging. This generation of students is equipped to handle this kind of technology in the classroom setting. Although there are many advantages to blogging, there are some disadvantages. One disadvantage to blogging in the elementary classroom is even though this world is technology-driven, not all students have access to computers. Blogging, although a great tool and assignment for the classroom, is not always fair for all students due to the lack of computer access. Finally, another disadvantage of blogging in the classroom is the lack of security for students. Information provided over the Internet is easily accessible by all. Blogs made in the classroom could be viewed by outsiders and students in the classroom could potentially gain access to information they should not have access to. This can be prevented by security settings and filters on computers, but information can sometimes slip through the security. It is important that students always be monitored on the computer constantly, which can be hard on teachers. Overall, I feel blogs are a great resource for today's elementary classroom and can be utilized in many useful ways.