The Student as Scribe

 A potential benefit of having a student scribe in the class would be having a student who can take notes well and incorporate them into a format that is appropriate for all of the students in the class. A downside could be that students who are not the scribe for the day or the unit may not contribute as much as they should or contribute the best work possible which may make it difficult for the student scribe to take effective notes. 

I think students who publish to a global audience will provide their best work and find as much important information as they can. I feel older students would especially benefit from this knowing that the internet is forever. They will gain a deeper understanding of the material they are posting if they are striving for excellent work. 

I do think students will put more effort into work that will be posted for an audience rather than just their teacher. They see their teacher regularly and know what they can and cannot get away with in terms of assignment submissions and quality. When they post online, they know that it will be on the internet forever. Because of this, they need to monitor their grammar, their word selection, and how they phrase their writing. 

I think teachers can model sharing knowledge with a global audience by first creating a team post on the blog. As a class, the teacher can have the students give ideas on the topic. As the teacher writes what the students are saying, the students can peer edit and decide if they think the wording is appropriate. Alternatively, teachers can find good, bad and indifferent blog posts and point out spots that they students feel is appropriate to post online or what they feel is inappropriate to have online.