First of all, let me just say that if we could have utilized blogs in my high school, I think that I would have gotten a completely new level of education out of anything that we studied. Just reading Richardson’s descriptions of the various ways blogs can be used in classrooms made me giddy to start using them myself! I have visions of students really engaging in material, doing online research on things that truly interest them, and finding a whole new wealth of material that was not open to them previously. The idea of students being able to chat with authors, students across the country, students just down the hall–and sharing what they had learned, collaborating material, and forming a learning community bigger than themselves is a teacher’s dream, I think.

It’s the “learning community” part that really gets me excited about using blogs in my classroom. Simply googling the term “learning community” brought about so many results that it would have been almost impossible to sort through them! But all those results are so encouraging because they signify the hundreds of different outlets that my students can join and pair their learning with others across the world. Of course, as Richardson says, some policing must be enforced, but that is par for the course.

Teaching students in the 21st century basically requires us to adopt and embrace the introduction of blogs into our classrooms. Our students spend SO much time online that it would be foolish to ignore something so powerful and not utilize it to its full ability in our classes. Why not show students that the very thing they do for hours a day can be translated into a learning experience? What do we have to lose? They know so much about how to research and work online that all they need is some gentle guidance to really develop their online social skills into some great online scholar skills. I also really agree with Richardson’s view that this type of learning is highly constructivist and think that is one of the reasons that blogging will be so successful within a class. Students long for a hands-on, non lecture environment and blogging hands that to them on a silver platter. I am 150% for using blogs heavily within my classroom and can’t wait to develop ways to encourage students to get as excited about technology and learning existing side by side as I am!