Educational Blogging & UDL

Anne Davis revisits the rationale for education blogging in her post today over at Edublog Insights and it is an excellent, succinct explanation. Among her points are:

Blogging is educationally sound for teaching students because:

• Blogs provide a space for sharing opinions and learning in order to grow communities of discourse and knowledge — a space where students and teachers can learn from each other.

• Blogs help learners to see knowledge as interconnected as opposed to a set of discrete facts.

• Blogs can give students a totally new perspective on the meaning of voice. As students explore their own learning and thinking and their distinctive voices emerge. Student voices are essential to the conversations we need to have about learning.

She frames it so much better than I can. Read the rest of her post to help you better understand the pedagogy behind educational blogging. It may transform your classroom.

But one point Anne overlooks is the fact that classroom blogging promotes Universal Design for Learning. When teachers integrate blogs into their curriculum, students now have opportunities to be engaged in additional ways. The material is now presented to meet the diverse learning styles of students. And the expression possibilities expand as well. Isn't this what UDL is all about - providing multiple methods of representation, engagement and expression?