Educational Blogs for Elementary Students

Benefits of Elementary Student Blogging

Simply defined, a blog can be looked at as an online journal and this closed blogging community offers a friendly environment that encourages individual expression and introduces the concept of an online community.

Blogging can help students improve their writing skills, and can help them understand why learning to write is so important. While educational blogging is still in its early stages, some evidence suggests an increased interest on the part of participating students in the quality of their writing. This is attributed to the fact that the students' work will be published online and viewed by more people than just their teacher.

Blog posts include:

• Subject
• Title
• Message

Posts can be kept to one or two paragraphs or longer depending on what the teacher hopes to accomplish.

Media Objects

Before students take part in educational blogs for elementary students, it's necessary to establish guidelines. Will students be allowed to include media objects other than text within the body of their blog? These would include:

• Pictures
• Graphics
• Multimedia

If graphics and photos are allowed, it is suggested that they be shown to the teacher for pre-approval, so a responsible adult can judge appropriateness.

Interactive Written Communication Skills

Educational blogs for elementary students encourage students to put more effort in to developing thoughts and topics in written form because pre-approved readers other than their teacher will read their work. Along with this, if the comment feature is activated, readers will have the option to comment. Comments should be monitored by the teacher, and can be used to stimulate discussion, expand a topic and also to encourage the student as they learn.

Ideas for Topics

The idea is to make the blogging experience relevant to the student's school experience. Include blogging as part of a subject students often find boring. For example, if you have a group of 5th graders blogging about the top news stories of the day, they are not only hearing about current events, but are actually gleaning enough details to pass on the information to others which enhances the learning process.

Safety and Educational Blogs for Elementary Students

One of the biggest challenges in using blogs as a teaching tool is safety. Where do you find the pre-approved audience? Caution is necessary, because with Internet access and basic software students can write for all the world to see? Blog programs can include web-based programs like Blogger or LiveJournal, but they are not designed for educational purposes, nor do they offer the supervisory features you'll want in place for elementary students. Instead try one of the following kid-friendly programs:

• Blogmeister – This application is free and there is no software to install. The program lets teachers review each post and either approves it to be published or sends it back to the student for editing.
• KidzBlog – This is ideal software for elementary age students because it's easy to use and it lets students:
  • Create a blog
  • Name it
  • Customize the look
  • East post includes text and a picture
  • Includes a simple painting tool for creating pictures

Password protection ensures that students content will not go online until the teacher enters the password.

• Think.com – Think.com isn't really a blogging tool, but it provides similar benefits with fewer risks. For those teachers who are super cautions about letting elementary students gain access, this closed e-mail and web-authoring tool lets the students view only e-mails and sites created by their school peers. These can serve as a form of blog with text and graphics.

Restictions

Needless to say, safety is an issue. Everyone wants to keep elementary students safe from online predators. Your first step as a teacher should be to review your district's Acceptable Use Privacy (AUP), to be sure to adhere to restrictions that apply regarding the posting of student work, photos or names online. Once you've done this, choose a blogging program tool that requires a teacher password to publish. Take steps to educate your setudents about online safety, and carefully monitor blogging activity.