Questions, questions

So, my feelings about blogging have always been lukewarm- not sure exactly where it would fit in, not sure what benefits it would provide for my students, concerns about making sure that student written content is appropriate, how is a blog different from a document....

This week's reading have me rethinking blogging, especially Sandra Porter's students using blogs as a portfolio. This project really seems to have practical value for students. It is always a challenge to make sure that students connect the lab work that we do to the content and that this leads to better retention. This year, I have been trying to document lab activities with photos, both taken by me and by students. We've been sharing the photos through Instagram and recently through Google photos and I have started to require photos as part of lab reports. Wasn't sure at first how to share the photos, now thinking that a blog may be a possibility since it would add the writing piece and the ability to comment...still questioning if a blog is necessary or if the same thing could be done with a Google product that doesn't require another log in.