Meaningful Student Blogging Strategies

After looking over the 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging blog entry, I would like to emphasize the importance of the first step. Utilizing technology in the classroom is essential as it increases teaching efficiency and teaches students about new technology for themselves at the same time. However, I don't believe that rushing in and teaching students to use a social media service which isn't designed for the classroom is the best idea either. Take Twitter for example; it's great how teachers are figuring out ways to use it and make it work for them, but it also provides distractions for the students and I think in a few ways it is superfluous and unnecessary. There are many free services on the internet that provide what teachers are looking for in terms of blogging in the classroom, many of which could be designed for the classroom. This teacher found a website found Kidblog, which is unfortunately down at the moment, but I am sure it is more designed for teachers like her to use in the classroom. Perhaps one day there will be one website or program that is completely designed for the classroom and teaching students how to utilize technology.