How I Would Use Blogs in my Teaching

There are so many possibilities on how to use blogs in the classroom. One of the main ways I would use blogs is when students are given a reading or a topic and they each have to respond to it in their own way. The students can create a blog post regarding the reading or topic and then other students can respond. Then, the class can convene and discuss what some main points each person had mentioned on his/her blog. Blogs are a great way to begin discussions, but they could also be used to end discussions as well. If the class has a whole group discussion that is controversial and the teacher wants to be able to hear every person's point of view, then a blog post would be a convenient and quick way for the teacher to read everyone's thoughts. I would not use blogging too much in the classroom though, because it takes away from face-to-face interaction with peers which is entirely too necessary, but blogging can be a great teaching tool