Blogging

The diagram to the left demonstrates the multiple aspects of blogs that can help develop a successful online learning environment. Audience, presentation, community, and comments are tied together and are necessary traits in building a successful online environment. This diagram isn't exclusive to blogs but is applicable to any digital product. In the specific case of blogging, however, a publisher needs to be cognizant of its intended audience and ensuring the content is formatted to appease them. A key feature of diagram is that there isn't a clear start or end point. Good presentation without an audience will not yield a long lasting output. Also, the aspects of comments and community are interdependent for success. Enabling comments is critical for building a community, but that is not only step in creating a true community. A blog designed for an educational program should consider the potential for multiple audiences. A teacher or professor may blog to help disseminate information to students in the class. Depending on the age of the students, will parents become part of the audience, or do they become the audience if students are still too young to be fully engaged in a digital curriculum. Even high school classes benefit from keeping parents informed of class rules, expectations, and assignments. For high school students, perceived independence doesn't always match actual responsibility and maturity. Building a comments area provides a forum for interaction and engagement. These can be the building blocks to community. Using a high school elective course as an example, the community may consist of more than just the people commenting on the blog. Parents may read the blog to follow along the expected workload and stay engaged with their son or daughter. Prospective students may read the blog to get an early understanding of what is required to be successful in the course. So for blogs, the aspects of audience, presentation, comments, and community are interwoven and essential in making it successful.

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One of the benefits of using digital environments to enhance learning is the opportunity to save information for later retrieval. Students need the ability to go back to information they may have forgotten, so using a blog to list out class rules, expectations, projects, and other things is beneficial to learning. Students can also engage with the learning experience by commenting and sharing their understanding or perspective. This helps create a community dynamic. Blogs can also be used to create a feedback loop between students and teachers which helps teachers ensure students are engaged. This process of idea sharing has students extremely involved in the learning process and enhances retention. 

The current generation of students are significant consumers of content via digital means, so their learning environments need to adapt to that culture. Blogging in the classroom is a viable way to meet that expectation.