The Benefits of Student Blogs

Student blogs are an excellent alternative to purely written work. They allow students to use a much greater range of creative skills.

On the Teacher’s Blogs page I discuss how teachers can set and receive assignments through blog pages and comments. From the student’s perspective this has many benefits:

• student blogs can incorporate video – not just downloaded from YouTube, but self-produced. For many students the technology is already in reach through mobile phones and webcams.
• using a wide range of media helps students to develop skills that will be extremely useful in their future careers
• creating blog pages encourages students to think and develop their own opinions. Of course, there are many ways in which they can ‘lift’ content from other websites but it is also easy to copy from a book
• the student blog pages can form part of an online portfolio of their achievements to be shown to parents and grandparents – and possibly prospective employers
• the blog pages are a vivid reminder of the work that they have done through their school career and a valuable revision resource

Of course the blogs needn’t only be about study. They can encompass all the activities in which the student is involved:

• sports – team and individual
• drama, music and dance
• interests – photography, astronomy etc
• field trips
• events

Through their blogs, students can feel a greater sense of belonging and at the same time share their experiences with family and friends.

All of these benefits can be achieved as a by-product of what students already do. Creating their student blog simply means working slightly differently – it does not mean extra or distracting effort.