The uses of a blog within the classroom seem as though they could be endless. Blogs could realistically be used for any grade level from K-12 and within every subject taught within the British Columbian school system.
For me personally, I see blogs being an extremely effective tool for primary social studies topics as they would allow students to create formative posts throughout the term about their selected topics to act similarly to a journal or resource for students to come back to and for educators to see the progress of their students. While this could be true for every subject taught within schools I believe that Social Studies would be a subject which it would be most effective for due to the amount of content which students engage with.
Using Grade 3 Social Studies as an example and the BC Curriculum for support, I will make it clear why I believe a blog would be effective in this subject area. The core competencies of the grade level being communication, thinking, and personal & social all lend themselves to a blog format. Communication is the most obvious core competency which would lend itself to the blog format, as a blog’s main goal is to communicate both findings and ideas about the topic chosen. Secondly, thinking is also a core competency that can be effectively demonstrated through blog posts, as students could use the blog to present their critical and reflective thinking skills, as well as their creative thinking regarding their topic. The third core competency of personal & social would also be easily covered through the use of a blog as the students could show their awareness and responsibility, their personal and cultural identity, and their social awareness and responsibility through the layout of their blog, photos or videos present, the topic being discussed or individual posts.
Overall, I believe blogs can be extremely effective tools in nearly all classrooms with the right support and should be used if the educators and the students both feel comfortable with the technology required.
