For me, collaboration through blogging would be a great addition my classes. Providing an informal environment for students to practice their writing skills and allowing students to collaborate on finding solutions to assignments are two of my favorite possibilities with blogging.
If students have freedom to write their own responses according to their opinions/ ideas, they'll be more motivated to add substance to their dialog. Also, it has been shown that students who must write to their peers in an academic setting try harder to provide a dialog that will impress their peers.
Everything the students write will be time stamped so setting deadlines and grading will be efficient and effective.
Great choice here, Kevin. I know that our blogging assignment was initially met with some resistance (probably news to you, Steve) but it really took off once we got all of the technical setup out of the way and could just focus on the content. From personal experience, I can say that having the blog put in place as a forum to share ideas and express ourselves has been great for me, and you're right about one thing for sure, I was even more mindful of what I wrote knowing full-well that our classmates would have access to my work. I think that creating competition and self-governance in the classroom is very useful, and blogging is a great way to begin that process.
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