Blogs for Students

We've looked at what blogs are, and some of ideas and advantages for teachers blogging. This post is looking at blogs for students.

There's a video here explaining some of the educational benefits to blogging.

There are loads of articles and academic papers that explain the benefits of blogging with supporting evidence, analysis of those is best left to the qualified educators, but there are other benefits that I do know about to having blogs for students on your website, from first hand experience and feedback from teachers.

Student Enjoyment

If other people are going to see your work, you work harder on it, there's a sense of pride in that work. The same can be said of a blog; it's publicly available on the school website. Because it's publicly available there is also potential for a greater level of interaction with the content. Many students enjoy being able to blog, the sense of something real that's going out onto the internet where it can be read, and they get to see their work on their school website.

Parent Engagement

Blogging is a great way to get parents involved in your website. If a student goes home from school and can show their parents some work they've done, or a blog post they've written thats available on the website, parents are able to view that content, and have an insight into the work going on at school. Instead of just the usual answer to 'How was school?' of 'Yes' or 'Grunt... mumble' there's something available online to quickly see what's gone on at school that day. If the school website is up to date with everything going on at school, parents are likely to be more informed. Then, because they're already on your website, any other news or events displayed on your website have an increased exposure.

Schudio School Website CMS

The Schudio School Website CMS includes a full blogging module, with options to create as many blog categories as are required. I've been advised by a teacher that he showed his class the Schudio School Website CMS blogging platform, and after 40 minutes of showing the class how to blog once, they can now all successfully blog. The blog is viewable on the school website, keeping a consistent and professional look and feel, with the ability to display other school content alongside.

Blogs can be written on any internet enabled device with a web browser, from desktop computers, right down to mobile phones. The blogs that are written will be viewable on any device too, because every single website built with the Schudio School Website CMS is responsive and works on any device.

Do you know of any other good blogs for students? Maybe your own class, get in touch we'd love to hear how you're using blogs in education.

Examples of good blogs for students:

Walmsley Primary School Year 5 Children's Blog

Park Community Academy Blogs (Teacher & Student)