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Let Them Blog: Using Weblogs to Advance Literacy in the K-12 Classroom

As Internet technologies continue to bloom, understanding the behaviors of its users remain paramount for educational settings. For teachers, parents, school administrators and policy makers, learning what types of activities and applications students are using on the Internet is only the surface – understanding how they are using these applications can provide innovative strategies for learning environments. Previously, many scholars have explored how Internet users communicate and present themselves online, using computer-mediated communication venues such as email, chat rooms, instant messaging, newsgroups, multi-user domain (MUDs) and personal home pages to examine communication patterns, online identity construction, and even gender differences (Crystal, 2001; Döring, 2002; Greenfield & Subrahmanyam, 2003; Herring, 2000; Lee, 2003; Turkle, 1995; Witmer & Katzman, 1997). Internet technologies continue to evolve, and it is important for scholars to examine the latest CMC arenas in comparison with past research in hopes of finding new ways to find creative learning solutions and enhance pedagogical method in educational technology. Weblogs, commonly referred to as blogs, represent one of the latest advances in CMC. A blog can be simply defined as a online journal. Made up of reversed chronological entries infused with text, images or multimedia, blogs embody a place where individual expression and online community development coexist. Not only do the authors, or bloggers, post thoughts and feelings on a web page for the world to view, but blog readers can comment, creating a dialogue between the blogger and the community he inhabits. Furthermore, bloggers link to other bloggers, creating an interwoven, and perhaps interdependent, online community of writers and readers. Blog popularity continues to resonate throughout the media, with many scholars suggesting an evolution in individual self-expression, education and research, online journalism, and knowledge management (Alterman, 2003; Blood, 2003; Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004; Lasica, 2003; Moore, 2003; Mortenson & Walker, 2002; Oravec, 2002; Pollard, 2003b; Schroeder, 2003). In a recent survey, Perseus Development Corporation found that among the four million published weblogs, almost 53% are created by children and adolescents between