Student's Posting Their Work to Blogs

I think that it is important for students to post their work to blogs and in other ways because it opens up doors and presents opportunities that might otherwise not come to them. A great exapmle of this is how the elementary school students of thePS22 Chorus brought Stevie Nicks to tears as she watched a video of them singing a version of her song "Landslide." She invited the chorus to sing at Madison Square Garden for the Fleetwood Mac Show. If the students had not posted their song on the internet, they never would have been given such a great opportunity. Another example of this is Dear Kaia, a blog that Jabiz Raisdana keeps about his daughters. In one post, he shared about the importance of children spending time outdoors and connecting with nature. He had just finished reading The Last Child in the Woods, which gave him the idea to let his daughter take pictures outdoors and post a photo essay about what she saw. A group of eighth graders in Missouri was commenting on Mr. Raisdana's blog and he noticed their comments. They talked with him on Skype and decided to do a voicethreadfor Kaia about how her photo essay was used to help them learn.

Students who are graduating from college can use blogs to post their work as a type of resume for future employers. They can add videos and other content which would help to show how qualified they are for a job. I think that this is a great idea because one can learn a lot about a person by reading things that they have written, or by looking at pictures and videos of them. A future employer might be able to get a better idea about a person's personality by looking at a blog than they would during a thirty minute interview. A site called Zoli's blog discusses this topic. It says that resumes are dead, and that a person's blog is their new resume.

Another great thing about students posting their work to blogs is that it can give other teachers ideas for things to do with their students. It could be part of a teachers Personal Learnig Network.It is also a great way for parents to see what their child is doing in school. Even though I'm in college, my dad wanted to read my blog posts, so I gave him my blog address. He has been reading them and talks to me about things that I've written. It is a great way for students to share what they've learned in school.