One of the commonest misconceptions of non-bloggers is that blogging is a dumbing down of “real education”.
Anyone doubting the educational value of blogging should read Darren Kuropatwa’s blog OLE and particularly the piece about scribing.
Quite apart from the serious look at blogging, this piece is a massive exercise in teaching methodology.
It was, I believe, originally presented at the Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston this year.
Questions and Reflections 
I can’t see a case for blogs as anti-educational, Rob. Young people are creating content – text, pictures, video, music – all over the place and yet a lot of professed educationalists can’t even see it, let alone understand it.
In your years of teaching, when did you ever see such a strong desire among kids to write! Certainly little sign of that in mine without a big stick.
Ian
I couldn’t agree more with what you say, but if we are to take full advantage of this enthusiasm we must make changes in the classroom and the curriculum to accommodate it.
I’m hoping that DiDA and the new iMedia awards will be a little more open to new media/ Web 2.0 approaches than has been the case hitherto.
Changes to the classroom, though. I can see exactly where you’re going. But it’s a much bigger challenge,eh?
Here in Scotland, it is perhaps not such a big challenge as it was. The fledgling Curriculum for Excellence will encourage a changed approach to classroom methods.