Heather Ross

Sarah,

I totally agree about the issue of "flux". You're absolutely correct that we haven't seen the long-term impact of future employers, spouses or even government officials reading what we or our students put online in various locations.

I'm not saying that our students don't care and neither should we. I think that we need to be doing a better job of educating our students about these issues. If we keep their blogs private and ignore what they may be writing on other blogs, at MySpace, on discussion boards, etc. then we are not doing a very good job as educators.

This is an interesting point, Christie, but I think that it's important to think about other aspects of our students lives. Yes, we need to make it clear to students that what they right on public blogs is out there for everyone to see and always will be, but many of these students (more than most people realize) are already "out there" on MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and all of the rest of the social networking Web sites. This is a generation that's out there more than any generation before them. We need to make sure that they understand their exposure across the spectrum of these sites. 

Michael,

I agree about a student's blog should be available to others outside of a specific course (at least open to the other students in the program) and should get them through the length of their program. Access limited to the length of a course is one of the many limitations of discussion boards within WebCT/Blackboard. I have students who will go through an entire program as a cohort and will take all of their courses together, yet they have a new discussion board for each course.

Terry, I understand the idea of the need for personal space that blogs can provide, which is why I have my own blog. I am, however, also involved in a education related blog that is completely open. I know of many non-education related blogs that also allow for many people to make posts as well as comment. I think that blogs started as journals and have expanded to be so much more.

Thanks for the links.

I didn't notice a wiki set up yet for this forum, but I wanted to point you to some great resources and examples of blogs in education.

Kathy Cassidy is a teaching in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. She is doing some amazing work. This is her class blog.

Edublogs provides free blogs for teachers and K-12 students.

Alec Couros has a wonderful wiki called Digital Literacy and Emerging Educational Technology. This is the page on blogs. Here you'll learn what blogs are and find links to examples and resources for blogging.

Finally, if you're doing anything with Web 2.0 in your classrooms, Will Richardson's blog is a must to follow. His book is also a wonderful resource.

While these links only scratch the surface of what's out there I think they're a great place to start.