Evaluating Blogs

Some of the folks at the Class Blogmeister mailing list have been talking about evaluating their students’ blogs.  They’re looking for rubrics and other tips for assessing student bloggings.  One rubric that came to our attention was a Blog Reflection Rubric from a course (EDTEC 296), taught at San Diego State University.  So if anyone knows of, or is using a rubric for evaluating student blog writings, please comment or send me an e-mail.

My personal inclination is to ask, “Are you teaching blogging?” or “Are you teaching communication?”  If it’s blogging, then you do need a separate blog evaluation rubric.  However, if the reason for student blogs is to improve their writing skills, then use the same rubric you would use if the students were writing on paper, or typing with a typewriter or word processor.  (Did I say typewriter?)

Of course, there are some distinct differences between writing on paper and writing on a blog.  Your assignment might involve reading the blogs of classmates and then comment, responding to their writings in some way.  This would probably require a richer rubric for evaluation, because you are evaluating a conversation, not just the putting down of some ideas.

On the other hand, we are talking about an avenue of communication that is fundamentally different, resulting in a new and rich source of content — a blogosphere.  In what ways does this dynamic and diverse information landscape differ from our traditional print/published environment?  What are its advantages?  What are its weaknesses and potential problems?  I think that these are conversations that should be happening in almost every classroom, especially in conjunction with blogging assignments.  It challenges, in my opinion, our very notions of what it means to be literate.

A few months ago I posted a number of questions that might be used with blogging assignments to help students think about the content that they are writing and reading, within the context of a different kind of communication.  I’ll repeat them here.

When reading a blog, ask:

  1. What did the author read in order to write this blog?  What did he or she already know and where did that knowledge come from?
  2. What are the other points of view?  What are the other sides of the story?
  3. What did the author want readers to know, understand, believe, or do?
  4. What was left unsaid?  What are the remaining questions and issues?

When writing a blog, ask:

  1. What did you read in order to write this blog?  What do you know and where did that knowledge come from?
  2. What are all points of view on the issue?
  3. What do you want your readers to know, understand, believe, or do?
  4. What will not be said?  What are some of the remaining questions about the issue?


Image Citation:
NYC, Susan. “Students Hard at Work.” Susan NYC’s Photostream. 27 Sep 2005. 8 Dec 2006 <http://flickr.com/photos/en321/47153763/>.

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39 thoughts on “Evaluating Blogs”

  1. Hi,

    There are a several pages of teacher-created rubrics related to Blogs in Rubistar. Some are better than others of course, but always worth a look! rubistar.4teachers.org

    Thanks!

    Gail Tiemann

  2. We just started blogging two weeks ago and so far so good. I teach gifted kids (K-6) so my situation might be different than a classroom teacher but I think this whole blogging thing is much bigger than writing. Until I read your blog post, I hadn’t given a thought to evaluating the students in a formal way.

    The most important outcome of blogging should be thinking. Many kids do not do much thinking during the day, with NCLB and AYP much of the day could be prescripted. Blogs allow children to think about many things; “What shall I write about?”; “Wonder what she meant when she wrote that?” “What is the article from the BBC about?” “How do I get my point across?”

    The second most important lesson to be learned is safe and responsible social networking skills, including appropriate interaction with others in writing. Parents are educated along with the kids. Thirdly, blogging is a great way to re-enforce copyright issues. What you write is yours; what others write is theirs. Lastly, we are using RSS to feed current news, science topics, book reviews. Students can immediately respond to real and relevant issues through a “blog it” option.

    So far our posts include an explanation of the time-space continuum, discussion on alternative fuel sources and the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes nuptials!! What a joy.

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