What+is+a+Blog?

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Weblogs provide teachers and students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate in new and exciting ways. A blog (short for weblog) is an interactive web page where individuals can post entries, articles, links, and pictures, and ask others to join into conversations. For educators, they are a way to expand the boundaries of learning. Teachers can post entries for students, parents, and for professional development purposes. Students can engage with others in their community or around the world. Work can be published to an authentic audience. Blogs are easily adaptive into most curriculum areas. They are relatively simple to use, can be accessed by anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection, and content can be published online in a matter of minutes. Educators around the country have started using blogs in a multitude of areas: > Teachers can post student writing, artwork, information about homework, upcoming events. Parents can have access to events and projects in your classroom. > Students and teachers can use a blog as a place to store assignments, links, plans, and handouts. > Students can extend conversations outside of the classroom, and collaborate with invited guests from around the world and from within the community. > Book clubs can involve students and parents, or students from other communities. > Blogs can work as a discussion group for students and staff in every discipline: Science to reflect on labs, Social Studies for current events, English for prewriting on central themes of novels, etc. > Teachers can use blogs as portfolios or as an archived discussion of their practice, both formal and informal. > Students can have interactive electronic journals or post completed works to an authentic audience.
 * [|taken from Arapahoe HS]**
 * 1) **Information/Communication Tools**:
 * 1) **Online Filing Cabinets:**
 * 1) **Collaborative Tools:**
 * 1) **Literature Circles:**
 * 1) **Online Discussions:**
 * 1) **Professional Development:**
 * 1) **Writing tools:**


 * Will Ricahrdson has written extensively about using blogs in education at his [|website] and in his book:

Richardson, Will. __Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.__ Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006.