3 ideas or activities that a teacher would find useful using blogs.

Peer assessment on writing. Perciles (2008). Blogs open up the prospect of learning outside the classroom. This learning is not confined to the traditional teacher student relationship, but rather relies on a combination of peer assessment and teacher assessment. Students are also able to edit their own writing via blogs (and often do this more comprehensively when it is peer assessed).

Introducing a concept/ idea through a blog. Barone (2008). This reading shows how effective it can be to introduce students to a concept and a way of learning through a blog (see Michaels “Wright class blog”. ) In this class, Michael introduces the class to the internet and how it helps them learn, via an introductory blog. This blog page also links to many useful sites, such as the school website.

 Providing writing Instruction.  A blog allows the teacher to lead discussion about a writing trait, its ideas and content. This can occur, before, during and after reading a picture book. Students are to comment on the effectiveness of specific examples of the writing trait (within the blog).