Pro Blogging!!

I believe that blogging is a great tool in the classroom with benefits that are to great to ignore. Students get a taste into someone else's world and what they believe about a topic might be completely different from what they believe. One of the goals of social studies is to learn about other places in the world, and a great way to learn about other countries is by talking to the inhabitants of that country on a blog. In social studies grade 6 children are learning about China and this would be a perfect setting for using up a blog. As China has newly turned into a capitalist country the children could talk about how it has changed their lives in China, and the children in Canada could explain how capitlism affects them here. I can only see positives out of this blogging exercise as students learn about a country not from what a teacher tells them but from eye witnesses; very impacting learning.
Anne Davis (http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2004/10/000180.php) explains that blogging is a way to link your classroom with another classroom somewhere else in the world. Anne is describing exactly what i proposed, in which students could share ideas about topics to other students across the world.
Teaching Today (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47) says that blogs are a great way to get students involved in discussion who might not normally talk in the classroom. Some children do not feel comfortable talking in the classroom and a blog is a great way to alleviate that fear.
If i were to use a blog in my classroom i would use the following steps to keep the students safe:
-Use a blog that only let certain people who have a password access the site
-Carefully monitor what the students write on the blogs to ensure comments are appropriate
-Have students check with the teacher before they are allowed to post anything, so he/she can make sure it is appropriate.
-I would not have any personal information about the students on the site except for their first name.
-That includes no pictures, addresses or phone numbers
-Inform parents and get their consent
-No email addresses allowed on the blogs
-Let the students know the strict guidelines that they must follow
These are just a few safeguards that need to be put in place before the students are permitted to start blogging.
Overall blogging is a great tool that enables communication of ideas over a new medium which the students can use to gain greater understanding of the world and people around them.