What are the pros and cons of blogging? I have personally used a type of blog to collaborate with a first grade classroom a few times. The first grade students would post about a common topic that both classes were discussing and then my students (I) would respond to their posts as a group. we would talk back and forth about the same topic. My students loved to hear what the first grade students were saying.

Pros: Great way to communicate back and forth with other classrooms when you are unable to talk face to face. It also allows students to use their 21st century skills to communicate rather then pencil and paper all the time. It is accessible at any time and any place.

Cons: Difficult to keep up with when there is so many other things to do and to be taught. If one person or group does not keep up with the blog, it becomes pointless.

I do believe that blogs have many educational benefits and ways they can be used in the classroom that I will touch on in my next entry. Blogs can also be used to collaborate with other professionals. They can be used to share ideas and resources and give feedback to each other. All of these uses help an educator become a more effective teacher. I also use blogs to check out other ways teachers are teaching similar topics so I can find the best methods and resources to teach my children. Until next time!

For an organized list of the pros and cons of blogging, click here
To learn about the pros and cons of using blogs for learning, click here
Blogging as a source of social networking for young children... check it out here

New to this

This is my first experience setting up my very own blog. I have edited my school's blog before but it was nothing that had to be updated on a regular basis. I tried to customize my blog a little bit to make it unique and not so "template" looking. Setting it the blog was rather easy and I had no problem navigating around to find out how to edit the various parts of the blog. When it comes time to set up the RSS, I think that might be a little more tricky but I'm eager to learn how to do different things with the blog and to possibly use the blog to connect to other teacher's blogs as well. I am excited to learn how blogging can help enhance my classroom and personal online experiences.