Why Students Should Blog!

i went to this website and read 20 reasons why students should blog. I will list 3 i strongly agree with and 3 i strongly disagree with. http://murcha.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/20-reasons-why-students-should-blog/

i strongly disagree with reason numbers:
4. Increased motivation for writing – all students are happy to write and complete aspects of the post topic. Many will add to it in their own time. Personally, i don't think writing motivates everyone and i don't think ALL students are happy to write. Some people take a writing class to get BETTER or LEARN how to write but it doesn't mean they enjoy it.

5. Increased motivation for reading – my students will happily spend a lot of time browsing through fellow student posts and their global counterparts. I don't believe everyone will happily spend time reading other students posts because certain topics interest certain people.

19. "Students are happy to share, learn from and teach their peers." not everyone is happy to share about their life and other things, they may want privacy. 

i strongly agree with reason numbers:
6. Improved confidence levels – a lot of this comes through comments and global dots on their cluster maps. Students can share their strengths and upload areas of interest or units of work eg personal digital photography, their pets, hobbies etc Staff are given an often rare insight into what some students are good at. We find talents that were otherwise unknown and it allows us to work on those strengths. It allows staff to often gain insight to how students are feeling and thinking. I do believe blogging will improve confiendnece levels because I think it's nice to get comments from others whether it's an opinion, feedback or just commenting to be friendly.

7. Pride in their work – My experience is that students want their blogs to look good in both terms of presentation and content. (Sample of a year 10 boy’s work). I feel like the students will have pride in their work because if it's about their life and things they are interested in then i think they will write to their best ability and feel good about it.

12. Mutual learning between students and staff and students. Blogging will give you a chance to learn about other students in your class and you can get to know someone better.