Blogging is a pretty popular activity these days: from travel blogs, to sports blogs, to food blogs, people like the idea of being able to talk about what they like in public. (Don't we all.) But blogging is a pretty sharp technological tool, if you think about it, and it is interesting to consider how we can use it in the classroom. So, here are a few ideas:
Blog is short for web log - it's a place to log information, to keep a record of thoughts, ideas, projects, and other work. In this regard, just as Barry suggests, it is like a digital portfolio. In today's day and age - the era of the digital native - the concept of a digital rather than paper portfolio is probably more appealing to students than having to keep extensive records and files that invariably get lost, scrambled, and messy. Probably one of the most obvious ways to incorporate blogging into a class room, then, is to have each student create one, and use it to post [informal] work and reflections. That way, they have kept a record of their thought processes and work for later use.
Another way to use a blog is similarly to the way that Willamette uses WISE - as a place for the teacher to post assignments, lesson plans, reminders, et cetera. However, unlike WISE, students can then respond to the teacher - ask questions, clarify assignments or instructions, give their own opinions or ideas. This is a useful, immediate (as long as the teacher and students is good about checking the blog) way to stay in communication about course work.
Something that I have considered is to use blogging in almost a combination of these two previous ways, as a forum for the students and the teacher to interact about assignments and course work - in other words, to use the blog as an extension of classroom discussion, in order to facilitate further conversation. Students from other classes of the same grade level and subject could also be involved, creating a means of cross-class discussion which could open students up to even more opinions and ideas.
You make a good case and point regarding the power of an open source blog to enhance communication vs use of a closed (private) content management system. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I like your example of using blogs to create cross-class discussion. Very powerful, indeed.
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