Web Watch

As the technology becomes more widespread, teachers are increasingly turning to blogs as a natural classroom tool. According to Will Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, tens of thousands of teachers across the country are now actively blogging. While many teachers maintain blogs to offer personal reflections—or just plain vent—on the teaching life, others are using them as a way to build greater classroom community and keep busy parents informed about what their children are doing in school. “The more [parents] know, the more they understand where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to accomplish in your room, the less they get upset,” reasons a teacher-blogger in Massachusetts. For his part, Richardson would like to see more teachers use blogs to tap new sources for learning. “You can bring authors. You can bring scientists,” he says. “This really opens up a way to make distance irrelevant and to bring people who know more than we do about the topics in our classroom. You’d be surprised by how willing people are to do that.”