School Blogs: "The Electric Pencil" and "In Need of Coffee"

I'm not going to lie. I chose these blogs because of their titles. What kind of a role model am I? But, there's a lesson here, Blogosphere, right?

Anyway, "The Electric Pencil" (http://epencil.edublog/org/) is a blog set up for a sixth grade class. The most impressive element of the blog is its demonstration of how much writing took place throughout the school year. While it's unclear how involved or thorough all of the writing projects were, there were 78 writing prompts listed that students were ostensibly responsible for! Wow. Students were asked to write everything from expository paragraphs to short stories to free writes to imaginary tree house plans. While not much student work was accessible anymore, there were a few examples which showed obvious use of technology (the site includes links to various "art tools" which help student create digital storyboards, comic strips, etc.). Very cool.

"In Need of Coffee" (http://seventhirtyblues.blogspot.com) is a blog supposedly devoted to high school literature. Not posted to since June 2006, it was hard to gauge the exact purpose of this blog. Its description reads, "[w]hen a student understands the words of a text, interacts with those words beyond the assignment given, allows those words to have meaning in his or her life, there is no greater satisfaction for a teacher of literature." Indeed -- no argument here. So, while at times it seemed the students were given prompts (Iraq, Internet Safety, a book vs. the movie, etc.), it mostly seemed like students were to use this a place to free write. It was unclear if there was any kind of "real" assignment associated with the blog or any kind of entry quota . It seemed a kind of experiment that, after June 2006, was abandoned (or perhaps manifested itself elsewhere). Students posted some ramblings but also some very thoughtful ideas.

After examining both of these blogs, it has become clear to me that 1) blogs are an excellent way to get students writing, and 2) it's important for the purpose of the blog to be articulated to students. It's impossible to tell by looking at the above blogs how well students understood the expectations -- whatever they were. I'm not sure an outside audience necessarily has to know that. But, clearly, participants do.