The other day when I was driving my two year old home from daycare he started chanting “blog, blog, blog, blog, blog” over, and over, and over, again. So, what is this “blog” stuff, besides a word used to annoy a normally loving mother after a long day at work?

The word “blog” comes from “web log” and blogs started out as online journals for folks to record the sometimes mundane, sometimes kooky, happenings in their lives. The  word “blog” is used as both a noun, as in “I can’t believe what you posted in your blog!”, and a verb, as in “I blog, therefore I am”. Today, there are blogs on virtually every topic under the sun and the Blog Herald estimates that as of May, 2007, there were approximately 60 million blogs online.

Blogs are pretty easy to set up and maintain (this one is hosted by Edublogs, which is not blocked by the county), and you might be interested in trying out blogging for your classes. Here are some ideas on how they might be used:

1. Host Online Discussions — All blogs come with the ability to comment on the content of the blog. Because of this, they make nice discussion forums. The comments can usually be moderated and/or restricted to only those you want to participate. (You can do this type of activity with SchoolFusion’s Message Board feature, too)

2. Share Professional Resources — We are all members of one Professional Learning Community or another. Blogs are a place where we can come together and share ideas and resources.

3. Create a Class Publication — Our Journalism class is already looking into this, but what a cool idea for a class or group project. Blogs can be set up as “stand-alone” webpages on any topic of your choosing.

These are just a few ideas. If you are interested in trying blogging out, contact your friendly ITRT!