Blogging in the K-12 classroom

I think blogging could be a very useful tool in the K-12 classroom. As a Spanish teacher, I would have my students use a blog as a journal. Entries could be in English or Spanish depending on the topic or level. If you wanted to get really fancy you could even find an interface en español! (like http://es.blog.com/)

Students could be more motivated to write given a medium in which they feel "at home" or a novel way to share their thoughts with their classmates or teacher. However, some important things to keep in mind if incorporating a blog into curriculum would be safety issues of students using names or places, internet access (or lack thereof) at home, and the prevalence of instant messaging type language and acronyms in formal writing. Students feel comfortable writing in IM codes but they do need to learn how to write formally as well. Blogging would not be a venue for a formal writing curriculum goal.