What Blogging Can Teach

A week ago or so, my students' West Civ Proj blog went live.

And all I can say is "wow'.

I've been blogging with my kids for three or four years. In fact, my student's personal class blogs double as their notebooks as well. But this is the first time we've gone and published a public class blog.

Going in, the idea was to make a magazine (as evidenced in the blog post linked to above). But, as this week has drawn out, the kids have requested that we put 100% of our energy into the class blog -- as a BLOG.

I can understand their thinking. After all, the blog offers instant (as well as global) response.

So far this week, blog comments have instigated discussions about quality of sources, generation gaps, and responsibility. The kids have learned that they're not always the best spellers, logicians, or copy editors; and they've also learned that there is such a thing as a legitimate audience and that people outside of their classroom actually care about what they think (and how they think).

I'm very proud of the kids over our first week. And I'm interested to see where they go with it. Hope you get the chance to check out what these students -- a group of 14 and 15 year olds with no previous experience with blogging -- are doing with interactive media.

As I see it, the(se) kids are alright.