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The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Principal Chris Lehmann champions integration of technology into all aspects of the curriculum. But he emphasizes that the educational purpose comes first. And that goes for blogging, too. "We don't start out by saying we want to start a blog," he says. "We say, 'We want to do X or Y--what's the tool that makes the most sense to use?' Lehmann views blogging as just one part of a holistic curriculum that he says should be grounded in technology. "The kids know the technology. What they don't often know is how the technology can change them as students. Just because they understand Facebook doesn't mean they understand how to be a better student of English or history. "Blogging for the sake of blogging is fine, but what is the value added?" That's a question educational blogging advocates are now coming around to answer, and the value they're finding may seem preposterous to those who associate blogging with barely literate loudmouths and cyber predators. Can this often belligerent wasteland of poor punctuation and indiscernible structure actually help develop better student writers? Barry Bachenheimer believes so and made an effort to prove it. Bachenheimer, director of instructional services for Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools in New Jersey and well known in educational circles for his own blog, "A Plethora of Technology," set out to show that blogging could improve students' writing skills by making them write more frequently and comment on one another's work. Last year, he began a project with five high school teachers in the district to study technology, specifically its effects on student achievement. One of the teachers, an 11th-grade English instructor, opted to determine if blogging could help students in the construction of a research paper. Would writing blog entries throughout the research process improve the quality of the final drafts that students submitted? "The teacher used blogs for the students to keep as a journal and flesh out ideas for point/counterpoint argument," Bachenhimer says. "There was interaction among the students and there was writing all day long, before school, during school, and after school. That was a bonus." Blogging is relatively new, with little research to support its academic benefits, so Bachenheimer's study is an eye-opener. It showed that students who blogged felt better about writing overall, and about writing research papers in particular. Of the 25 students in the English class, 74 percent believed that blog posts helped them articulate their ideas better, and 68 percent said blogs helped them determine what to say. Another 60 percent felt blogging helped them begin writing their papers, which is compelling because 84 percent of the students said that the hardest part of writing a research paper is starting it. The students commented that blogs helped them organize their thoughts, develop their ideas, synthesize their research, and benefit from their classmates' constructive comments. Bachenheimer's group conducted the same blogging experiment in an AP Spanish class. Though the sample size was quite smaller than in the English class--only nine students--the feedback was similar. Fifty-five percent of the students agreed that blogging helped improve their Spanish writing skills. Eight out of nine (89 percent) believed that the responses they received through the blog helped them improve their writing. "Most of the students in my class demonstrated greater overall ease of expression, which became apparent in in-class, timed writing assignments," wrote the Spanish teacher, Elizabeth Coogan-Russell, in the survey. "Although there continued to be a number of errors in students' writing, I noticed fewer basic errors. Most students demonstrated increased and more accurate usage of newer, more advanced vocabulary. By the end of the research period, virtually all of my students showed an increased ability to meet the requirements of the AP Spanish Language exam. …