More about blogs

So on the last post I mentioned a few blogs that I visit, as well as one you can use with your students kidblog.org.  Of course there is also Google's www.blogger.com, but unfortunately blogger is blocked by my county. It would be a great one for others out there though.  It is easy to use and a little more customizable than kidblog.  But what exactly is a blog?  Boiled down, basically its a personal publishing media on the web that allows for the publication of text, images, and video that also has teh capacity of hyperlinks. 
I originally started a blog after the ISTE conference to get down my ideas and thoughts about the many wonderful experiences I shared in Philadelphia.  It helped me reflect upon my time so that I could synthesize and summarize what I learned.  Blogging can be a great way to actively engage students in a  reflective, synthesizing process.  Take this blog for example, some posts truly are personal and self-oriented based on my own views, ideas, and thoughts of exploration.  Others, such as this particular post, are an assignment specifically structured so our professor can see how we are internalizing what we are learning...is this, you guessed it, blogs.
Blogs can create a very meaningful learning experience for students, because they make their learning their own.  They are constructing their own meaning and elaborating on it.  It can be a collaborative endeavor as blogs are open to comments.  Will Richardson wrote a book about Web 2.0 tools, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. The book is a very easy read.  He breaks things down simply, so if you are interested in knowing more, definitely check it out.  I have only had time to quickly scan his blog, but that certainly warrants a quick check too...not necessarily for blogging info, but for info on education in general. 
This article, Teaching Today gives some tips about how blogs can be beneficial in the classroom as well as some management tips and risks to consider.  Or listen to the students and hear why they like using blogs.