blog@geibtechforlearning

Hi Rich,
Thought you might enjoy this article...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/01/BU2618GKE7.DTL&nopu=1

Wow.... a "walkman"! That brings back memories... Thank you!

In the article “The Prose of Blogging” by Rama Ramaswami, I think that blogging could make a difference in students’ life by helping them write more and making them aware of the mistakes they are making and even help them correct the errors. Barry Bachenhimer, director of instructional services for Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools showed that blogging could improve students’ writing skills by making them write more frequently and comment on each other’s work. Maybe students are being more careful with their writing skills because they care about what their friends might say or think. Therefore, they might take more time in checking their grammar before they post their blog.
According to Bachenhimer, students have mentioned that the blogs have helped them organize their thoughts and has benefited them from their classmates’ constructive comments. I think that through the blogs students could get a better idea of what they want to write about if they still don’t know what to write by viewing other people’s blogs and comments. Students who like blogging have a better chance of getting better in their writing skills because of so much practice. I think it’s such a great idea to blog as a homework assignment so students could socialize with other students whether they are at home or at school, they could help each other and at the same time they could get used to writing.
Writing in blogs does not mean that the students are never going to make mistakes but at least they will be less and less every time. Bachenheimer’s results show that students who blog also write more and write better. This proves that students who do blog, benefits them in the long run because not only do they learn how to write with less mistakes but they also become more skilled at the keyboarding and many other things. I could easily relate to this because when I barely started typing I was typing with one finger and it would take me forever to find the letters, but over the years, I have got so much better because of the practice I had.
Moreover, I agree with Bud hunt, an educator who says, “Blogs should be part of a program that is focused on building a writing community of students, teachers, and other educators.” That way all the students including teachers could write about new subjects or about what they have been learning at school. The sooner we add the blogging to our curriculum the better. If educators could add blogging at the beginning of 1st grade why not do it? Then our students could have the advantage of learning how to blog at a young age.