First blog EVER!

So I've never blogged before and I'm a little nervous. I have avoid online personal information due to being a teacher as well as all of the horrible stories about stealing identities and the fact that online information is available to EVERYONE!

Since I have been playing around with blogs I have found some interesting things. You can add a calendar, pictures, games, etc. to your blog. Isn't the point of a blog to get your ideas and information out to the masses? Isn't the point of a blog to clear your ideas? Why put all sorts of extra distracting items onto your personal space for thinking?

I know that my students are all about the internet and blogging. My students come running in and tell me all about something they have read on the internet. I have been thinking about the benefit of blogs. My students LOVE the days when they get to write about anything they want. Some of them have trouble getting started, but the majority of them are engaged and interested since it's personal to them. Giving the students the opportunity to blog about any topic they want seems to me something my students would throughly enjoy. I have to find a way to make it enjoyable to the students, on topic that I give them, and have them actually do it. It seems that would be more work for me. I would have to go on multiple times to check who's posted, when they've posted, if it's appropriate, if the students are really showing me they understand the concept, etc. At the same time, since blogging is something my students would enjoy, they could get into it, add to others post, read other's ideas, etc. Pros and cons of everything......