ARTICLES NEWS TRENDS HOW TO UPDATES TOOLS SOCIAL MEDIA ONLINE COLLEGE REPORT
ADVERTISEMENT
Never miss our best content.
Home / Updates / How (and Why) To Use Student Blogs
How (and Why) To Use Student BlogsBy Kristen Hicks on May 19, 2015 @atxcopywriter
Tweet 404 110Like 71
Blogging has come a long way– once a strange new buzzword, it’s now an important tool forbusiness, education, and personal development. Having a blog doesn’t just mean putting personaldiary entries out on the web for the world to see – it can be a way to learn more about yourselfand any subject you choose to explore. Blogging is one of the easiest ways to create somethingmeaningful with mixed media.
That makes it a perfect fit for the classroom.
Image via flickr and Jose Kevo
There are many benefits of having your students keep blogs. A student blog is a space they own.They can engage with the material you assign in whatever way feels right to them. Students canwrite posts (obviously), but also include images, videos, and audio to add more meaning to thewriting, and they can comment on each other’s work.
Blogs encourage creativity and collaboration around the assigned material. And starting a blog iseasier than ever.
The Best Blogging Platforms for StudentsBloggers have a lot of options about where to create their blogs. The three options describedbelow are the platforms most commonly used in the classroom, though they are far from the onlypossibilities out there. Each platform offers a few distinct benefits that may make it the best choicefor your classroom.
1. EdublogsThe Edublogger 2014 survey on the state of educational blogging showed Edublogs took 60% ofthe use – although the website’s affiliation with the product could mean their audience is a bitskewed. Even so, it’s the only platform on our list developed specifically with education in mind.That means they offer a few features that speak to the particular concerns and challenges ofteachers. Such as:
Share 67 16
Getting to the Roots of STEMwith the Radix Endeavor
The LongTerm Effects ofSkipping Your ReadingHomework
By Pamela DeLoatch
20 Education Administrator Blogs
8 MustHave Google ChromeApps for Students
6 Videos To Use In Your SocialJustice Lessons
By Joy Nelson
Coding in the Classroom: 16 TopResources
MOST POPULAR
EDUDEMIC FAVORITES
HOME FEATURED THE TEACHER’S GUIDES FOR STUDENTS FOR TEACHERS Search
Edudemic's news and featuresdelivered daily.
email...
Sign me up!
Powered by Education Dive
Online Colleges That Offer Laptops
30 Best Online Master's Degree Programs inSpecial Education
The ability to have access and control over all of the student blogs through the educator’saccount.
The option to make student blogs available to other classmates, while keeping themprivate from the outside world.
The ability to review and approve (or delete) any comments on each blog before makingthem visible to students.
A commitment from the company that student blogs will have no ads.
Privacy options that do not allow spam comments.
A platform that’s very easy for students and teachers to figure out and use regularly.
Many of the teachers in the survey added notes about how great the company’s customer supportis as well, so you can count on getting help any time you need it.
The main issue with Edublogs, in comparison to our other options, is that its free version is limited.Many of the benefits we listed above are only available when you upgrade to their paid version.
2. WordPress.comWe covered much of the comparison between WordPress.com and Edublogs in our post on digitalportfolios. Since Edublogs is built on a WordPress platform, the functionality and interface are verysimilar, but WordPress provides a few distinct benefits:
WordPress is the prevailing blogging platform used in the business world, so gainingsome familiarity with it while young can pay off for students.
It’s relatively simple to figure out and, since it is so common, students and teachers caneasily find helpful online resources about using it.
WordPress.com has builtin features to develop a community outside of your classroom.Students can follow other blogs and like and comment on them to connect with otherbloggers. Where some classes will value the privacy of Edublogs, for others the ability toopen their blogging up to the larger WordPress community is more of a benefit.
Wordpress.com’s sister site WordPress.org could be valuable for students to learn as well, but it isnot a free platform and it isn’t as easy to use. For most classes, WordPress.com is a better option.
3. BloggerBlogger, a platform less well known than the others listed here, actually beat WordPress inEdublogger’s survey as the top choice of 11% of teachers (versus the 10% that pickedWordPress). The feedback showed that the main appeals of the Blogger platform are prettystraightforward:
It’s free.
It’s easy to setup and use.
It’s integrated with Google products and apps.
This last one is probably the main differentiator of the platform. Many schools and teachers arealready making good use of Google tools. If your students already have Google accounts theyuse for school, Blogger may be the most natural choice for you. They can use the sameusername and password as they do for Gmail, or other Google services, and access their blogeasily from within other Google apps.
How to Set Your Student Blogs UpThe instructions for setting the blog up will look a little different for each platform. Here are someresources to help you and your students get started.
Setting up a blog on Edublogs:Edublogs has resources that take you through the setup process stepbystep. You can alsoeasily find videos outlining the process made by other teachers.
Their main articles on setting up your personal blog, class blog, and student blogs are all collectedhere: Getting Started with Your Blog.
You’ll want to set up your own account and create a class blog first, then you’ll have control overthe settings and access levels for the student blogs. You can walk your students through
Affordable Online Colleges in America:Rankings & ReportEdudemic Staff | July 23, 2014
At long last, online learning is maturing to the pointof being a viable option for many. Let's uncover thetruth about cheap online colleges and if they'reright...
Edudemic
33,641 people like Edudemic.
Facebook social plugin
Like
ONLINE DEGREE ADVICE
MORE ADVICE
JOIN EDUDEMIC ON FACEBOOK!
USEFUL TOOLS TO CHECK OUT
4
1
Edublogs’ student instruction guide to get each of them set up once the class blog is in place.
Setting up a blog on WordPress:With WordPress, you can just get straight to having your students set up their own blogs if youwant. You can find the basic instructions for creating a WordPress.com site here.
The main steps students will be completing are:
Setting up a username and password.
Filling out their profile.
Choosing a name for the blog.
Choosing a theme.
Making minor tweaks to the blog’s appearance in the admin panel.
Your other option is to create a classroom WordPress blog. In this case, you start the blog andthen invite students to contribute. They’d still create their own profiles, but they wouldn’t haveseparate blogs to name and design.
Setting up a blog on Blogger:The basic instructions to get started with Blogger are here. If your students already have Gmailaddresses, then you’ve already completed the first step. If not, then creating a Google usernameand password will be the first step.
Then, all you have to do is choose your blog name and URL. For a walkthrough of the mainfeatures, you can show your students this tutorial video that covers many of the basics like how topersonalize the blog visually, how to create and publish posts, and where to load files.
Tips for Successful Student BloggingOnce your blogs are set up, you have to work out the best way to use them so students get thefull educational benefits of blogging.
1. Have a set of student blogging guidelines.This is something you could work out with your students, as a lesson in and of itself. It helps tocome to the lesson with some ideas of the kinds of issues and rules you definitely want to havecovered so you can lead the discussion in the right direction.Edublogs has gathered a list of links to blogging guidelines that have been developed at otherschools, to give you some ideas. Some issues you may want to address in yours are:
Privacy – what kind of information should students post, and what information is toopersonal or secure?
Respect – how should students interact with each other? What kind of behaviorconstitutes bullying and how should it be handled when it occurs?
Quality – some people treat blogging a lot like personal journaling. Should your studentstake this approach, or do you want them to be careful of things like grammar, form, andhow polished the work is?
Resource Quality – if your students will be encouraged to do independent research anddiscuss what they find, you should address how to find authoritative sources andrecognize bias.
Many potential approaches to using student blogs in the classroom can be useful to students, sothere’s no one right set of guidelines to use. You may be fine with letting them use it as aninformation tool for selfexploration, or you may feel it’s important that they treat everything theypost as an assignment to be graded, and proceed with the expected level of work and quality.Whatever direction you take, you want to make sure that students understand what’s expected ofthem from the outset.
2. Provide tips and suggested tools.Talk to your students about what makes a good blog. Make one of your first assignments thatthey bring in blogs they like and talk to the class about why. You can work together to pull outsome tips for how to blog well based on the examples you discuss.You can explore plugins or widgets together to help each student understand the options they
Coding in the Classroom: 16 TopResources
Inquiry in the Classroom: 7Simple Tools To Get You Started
By Pamela DeLoatch
The Best Ways to Use Google Inthe Classroom
have to personalize and enhance their blog. Edublogs has a list of the most popular widgets toadd to any blogs hosted with their software. And you can find a list of a few good educationalplugins for WordPress here. If you’re using Blogger, you can browse their list of Gadgets byselecting the “Layout | Gadgets” tab in the dashboard when you’re logged in.
3. Put safety first.Having student blogs both requires and provides an opportunity for a discussion of online safety.Clearly outline for your students some of the risks involved in doing something as public andwidely visible as blogging. Discuss what information is ok to share and how to recognize peopleand websites that should be avoided.Addressing this issue with your students can be a good entry into a larger discussion about digitalcitizenship. Student blogs can become a launching board into lessons about many of the issuesstudents need to keep in mind when living their lives online.
4. Discuss the difference between inspiration and plagiarism.This is another item you can cover in your guidelines, but it’s important enough to merit its ownmention. While your students should (hopefully) already have an understanding of why plagiarismis wrong, moving their assignments onto the web makes the stakes higher. If they turn in aplagiarized assignment to you, the consequences will mostly be confined to the classroom and theschool. Do the same thing on a public blog, and the issue becomes a legal one.Most of the best writers have been inspired by others and borrow ideas for topics and content.Explain to your students that it’s ok to make another person’s work the basis for something youwrite and that quoting another website directly is even allowed, but you have to be careful aboutattribution and avoiding direct plagiarism.
5. Encourage creativity and collaboration.Blogging gives students the chance to explore different formats of content creation. If you givethem free reign over just how an assignment is completed (within reason), students will have theopportunity to experiment with different types of media and technology, while still learning themain subjects they need to know.Blogs also provide a great space for building community. Students can view each other’s workand comment on it (and comment on the comments, and so on). You may have to make that partof the assignment if they don’t do it naturally, but it can add a lot to their experience if you bring inthe collaborative component of blogging.
Examples of Student BlogsYour students will make their blogs their own and turn them into something entirely new andpersonal. But both they and you can get some ideas by exploring a few of the student blogsalready out there.
1. Mateo’s BlogIn the first five seconds of visiting Mateo’s blog you get a sense of who he is. The blog is designedto highlight his personal style and interests. You can see a mix of content formats on display in hisposts, including slideshares, like this one on How To Leave a Comment (by the way, there’s somegood advice in that one your students might benefit from).You can get a good glimpse into some of what he’s been learning about, as his topics coverrobots, endangered animals, and digital footprints. And you can see that his blog includes text,slideshares, and images, so it’s clear he’s getting a lot of experience with different media types.
2. The Warrior KatThe Warrior Kat blog has a style completely different than Mateo’s, but equally personal andindicative of the writer’s personality. She’s has her blog more organized with different tabs andcategories, such as “In the News” and “Comics.”>Her blog brings even more content types into it, including videos, pictures, comics she’s createdon Bitstrips for schools, magazines she’s made with Flipboard.
3. Alyssa’s BlogFor our last example, we have Alyssa’s blog, which displays a nature theme. Like the othersblogs, Alyssa also employs lots of different types of media – embedded videos, polls, andwidgets, just to name a few.She shares some examples of her work coding for school. She has several samples of shortfiction written for the 100word challenge. And she has a few posts that are more generally abouther experiences and interests, like this book review and the post about a recent trip she took
Is Homework Worthwhile?← Previous Story
Edudemic’s Question of theMonth: March Recap
How to Get Free ClassroomSupplies and TeachingMaterials
Best of the Best: Apple andGoogle Educator Programs
All of these blogs have a mix of posts that are clearly related to school assignments and thosethat are more personal to the student. And all of them show the ability of students to branch outand try out different types of technology and forms of creation through blogging.If you want to see some more examples, there’s a list of 45 different student blogs that werefinalists in the 2014 Edublogs Awards. But once your students get started, you’ll have plenty ofexamples to explore.
To Get StartedThat should be a pretty healthy dose of information to get you started, but we’ve also got a videothat covers a lot of the questions and information you’ll want to consider when starting blogs withstudents, including:
Choosing what subjects to cover
What extra features to consider
Additional platforms to consider (beyond those addressed in this post)
The basic steps of setting up a WordPress.com blog
Choosing a theme
Publishing posts
Tagging and setting up categories
Blogging’s place in the mainstream means that you and your students have access to a wealth ofuseful resources on how to blog well, how to make use of various features, and how to bring morecreative elements into the blogging process. Take advantage of the resources out there and getstarted!
Editor’s note: This article is a revision and combination of several older Edudemic articles,updated and reanalyzed to reflect the latest innovations.
RELATED ITEMS BLOGGING COLLABORATION CREATIVITY EDUBLOGS EDUCATION BLOGS FEATURED
STUDENT BLOGGING WORDPRESS
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...
2 COMMENTS
Brianne CornettMay 20, 2015 at 9:38 am
I think that student blogs are an amazing way to begin connecting with the world beyond school, yet still have asense of guidance. Blogs give students the opportunity to express themselves in ways that regular/traditionalassignments don’t give them the option for. I am a college student and for several of my classes we have arequired blog component. I really enjoy this component because it gives me more of an opportunity to be myself. Idon’t feel as pressured to give the right answer because the format of a blog post makes it more personal. Idefinitely think that using blogs in the classroom is a valuable resource.
Reply
Julie HardinMay 24, 2015 at 12:46 pm
I did not start blogging until I was in college. I was very unsure about it but really have enjoyed blogging andconnecting with other students and teachers that way. I think that it is important to have guidelines for students togo by such as privacy, respect, quality, and resources. Students need guidance, especially if they have neverblogged before. One of the most helpful things to me when I started blogging was having the professor link theirblog into the course page and I was able to reference what a blog should look like because I had never used onebefore. If I teach older grades, I will use blogging as a resource in my classroom.
Reply
RECENT ARTICLES
Jon Butcher | May 29, 2015
4 Steps to a Useable and UsedLMS
Amanda Ronan | May 28, 2015
Edudemic’s Question of theMonth: March Recap
Robyn Scott | May 27, 2015
Creating a Free VirtualClassroom for InternationalLearning
FEATURED ARTICLES
Sarah Muthler | May 15, 2015
Is Homework Worthwhile?
Amanda Ronan | May 4, 2015
6 Videos To Use In Your SocialJustice Lessons
Brittni Brown | May 1, 2015
Turn Your Students Into DataSleuths With GeographicInformation Systems
MOST POPULAR
Pamela DeLoatch | May 11, 2015
20 Education AdministratorBlogs
Jim Hinton | April 23, 2015
Getting to the Roots of STEMwith the Radix Endeavor
Pamela DeLoatch | April 14, 2015
The LongTerm Effects ofSkipping Your ReadingHomework
© Edudemic Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Name *
Email *
Website
Comment
Post Comment
About & Who We Are Contact Terms & Privacy Policy
LEAVE A REPLY