Using Blogs to create digital student portfolios

1:1 technology allows for interesting opportunities to create pathways, catalogue, assess and even participate in student work. One possible manner for engaging students in documenting their progress is through blogging. Blogging or web logs have been around for quite awhile. They can be powerful tools in education. Teachers can use them to post class content, host group discussions, and communicate with parents and the school community. Students can use blogs to respond to prompts, self-reflection, post sample work, etc. So many opportunities are available for both teachers and students, it certainly seems worthy of a look.

Student portfolios are a great way to monitor progress and allow both student and teacher access to evidence of achievement. Additionally, portfolios created through blogging allow for interaction between student and teacher for feedback purposes.

There are numerous blogging platforms but this post will focus on Blogger. Blogger is a Google application and, considering our school's affiliation with Google, it makes sense to start there. I have been using Blogger for a couple of years and like the ease of use, customization options, opportunities to embed Google apps (such as YouTube) and access to other forms of social media.

You can create blogs on your iPad, laptop or desktop computer. You can add posts in each of these formats as well. You can edit quickly on the iPad using the Blogger App. 

Creating a Blog in Blogger:

1. Go to the the URL blogger.com
2. Sign in to your Google account
3. Create a new Blog
4. Name your blog so that it reflects what your blog is about
5. explore some of the customizable options to make your blog more visually appealing and in a layout that suits your needs.
6. Start blogging

With my students, I request they share the URL for their newly created blog via email or through whatever means is convenient. 

Once you have the student blog URL you can use an RSS reader to monitor student blog posts. An RSS reader can simplify the process of keeping track of multiple blogs in one easy location. I am currently using a reader called Feedly and it seems to do the job quite well. Whenever a student updates their blog, Feedly will show the latest posts. You can manage your student's blogs and organize them by class or content.