Blogging for Audience

Why Include Blogging in the Curriculum?

The Power of Audience and the 4 C's:

Connecting, Collaborating, Communicating, Critical Thinking

On Nov. 4, 2014, the Teach Writing group on Twitter had a one-hour chat about blogging.

These were the topics. Some of the tweets in response to Question 3, "What functions do blogs serve in education," are included below to illustrate the concept of writing for an audience.

Some samples of what teacher noted about blogging during the chat follow:

What high school students say about the power of blogging for global connections:

What younger students and their teachers say about blogging for global connections:

Maria Galanis, an educational technology coach for the Deerfield Public Schools, Chicago, has these comments about global blogging. Her video is embedded below the 4 screen captures.

2:00/2:38

2:12/2:38

1:08/2:38

1:32/2:38

The full video is embedded here for additional information.

Collaboration and Connections: Summative Points About Global Blogging

• Connecting with others beyond the walls of the classroom
• Developing a sense of audience
• Participating in communicating as a cyclical process, with readers replying
• Serving as ambassadors for a school, community, state, country
• Sending out a call for action as a civil responsibility
• Developing cross-cultural ties (e.g., social studies and English classes sharing information about units of study such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, Holocaust)
• Serving as "teachers" or "experts" through informative texts, tutorial screencasts, and information videos including book trailers

Also:

• Developing a public digital portfolio and digital footprint in the form of a blog for an audience
• Sharing digital content with others while developing multimodal, communicati skills (e.g., digital stories)

This post, "Blogging Is the New Persuasive Essay," speaks to using the technology for students to write for an audience.

So does this post, "6th Graders Have Their Say, Why Students Value Blogging."

As well as this post from a high school teacher, "Developing a Blogging Community Among Students."