Blog Post #3: Class Blog

I think a class blog can encourage collaboration in a couple of ways. The first way I think a class blog can encourage collaboration is through class discussions. In a class blog, the teacher can post a discussion, and have all the students comment on the discussion, what their opinion is on the topic. I think of this working the same way the discussion board on WebCT works for our classes here at UH. That way each student participates, and everyone in the class can see how each student feels on the given topic. Or a class discussion can be run the same way we're doing this blog post. If you give the students an assignment to post on the class blog, I think that can help to encourage collaboration in the classroom as well. Another way I can see a class blog encouraging collaboration in the classroom would be for the students to work as groups and use the blog as a class project. For my case, my focus is history, so I could have my students create blogs regarding U.S. Presidents. I could assign a different president to each group, and have each group post a blog on the U.S. President they were given. Then I could have each student comment on at least two other groups' blogs. That way the students collaborate in their groups to create their post, and I still can know that each student has participated in the project by the comments they leave on other groups' blogs. I think there are other ways that a class blog can encourage collaboration, you just have to be imaginative and creative to figure them out.