Ireland is a country well known for its famous writers. Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw are some of the more notable names that come to mind. I grew up in Ireland and my Grade 6 teacher, Mrs. O’Hourihan, used to provide our class with time each week for something that she called, Creative Writing.  It happened on Friday mornings and students could write whatever they wanted to.  There was no defined structure as to what students could write and the finished product wasn’t even graded for marks.  Some students wrote poems; others crafted lengthy (often one paragraph and sometimes one very long sentence) stories.  A number of students even tapped into their artistic talents and crafted cartoon strips complete with humorous dialogue.  At the end of the class we shared our creations with other students for pure enjoyment; no peer evaluation process.  That didn’t stop students from complimenting, critiquing and enriching each other’s understandings.  Our audience was our classmates and we connected our experiences and our learning to one another.  The format worked and teachers today continue to create similar learning experiences rooted in the notions of authentic and meaningful learning, creative engagement, and assessment as learning.

Fast forward a few decades and the “connected world” we now live in has seen the emergence of an untold number of challenges and opportunities for students, parents and teachers.  One’s written words once confined to the limits of the classroom now have the potential for an immediate global audience.  I’m talking about blogging and everyone (especially students) can do it.  Blogging is no longer reserved for the posh restaurant critic and political cynic.  Blogging is for anyone wishing to share their thoughts, learning, and experiences.  You don’t need a publisher.  You don’t need a university degree.  Free, secure, and safe blog sites abound and all that is required is a willingness to share one’s ideas with a potential global audience.  Who better to embrace the blogging philosophy than our Generation Y students?  Think for a moment of some of the benefits related to students partaking in blogging:

1. Blogging provides for an incredibly meaningful learning opportunity.  After all, anyone (everyone) could read what a student writes!  The heightened importance attached to their globally published efforts naturally creates purpose and meaning; two attributes that teachers desperately strive to have reflected in students’ learning.
2. Once a blog is published, students within their immediate class, school, community, and beyond can provide feedback and stimulate thought and discussion.  This allows for the writer (student) to connect their learning to others in new and enriching ways.
3. Blogging provides a means for students and teachers to observe and assess their growth in the area of writing.  How many Grade 8 teachers have the opportunity to see real samples of a student’s written work in Grade 6 or Grade 4?  Part of authentic assessment is identifying learning gaps and monitoring the impact of teaching interventions over time; blogging is the perfect medium to do both.
4. A blog is timeless.  It can become part of a student’s digital portfolio of their learning. Years later, it is at their fingertips to reflect on and help to develop new learning connections and understandings.
5. Blogging puts a student’s Internet identity where it belongs: under their control.  In today’s world, students are public by default. Blogging, with teacher and parent guidance, provides a safe forum to actively educate students about digital citizenship and aids in creating a mindset of responsible Internet use rather than a mindset of fear.
6. Blogging encompasses the 21^st Century skills that that we continually “talk about” in education.  Collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking are naturally and richly intertwined in the blogging experience.

There are certainly barriers to utilizing blogging in the classroom.  Technology access, teacher readiness, and mostly unfounded safety concerns are frequently cited as “why we can’t.” Had the medium existed, I believe Mrs. O’ Hourihan would have found a way to utilize blogging in my Grade 6 class.  It doesn’t require a class set of iPads and a Wi Fi connection.  It starts with an attitude of being willing to explore the idea.  Plant some seeds and see where they grow. Who knows, the next George Bernard Shaw may be sitting in that Grade 4 classroom just waiting to have his words read by the world.

Cathal Walsh is a former school principal. He is an education consultant and co-founder of SKILLZ Canada Martial Arts with locations in Victoria, Duncan, Ladysmith & Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. You can contact Cathal or by email at RethinkEducation@SHAKU.ca or follow on twitter @RethinkEDUC. www.SkillzCanada.ca