Web 2.0 And Blogging In The Classroom

The use of web 2.0 techniques by institutions of learning and their teachers are ever on the rise. Today's students and prospective students were raised in a digital world and expect the use of technology through outlets like Facebook and Twitter to be employed by the schools that they attend. Blogging is only getting bigger and stronger. In fact check out these statistics from from 2009 through the State of The Blogoshpere by Technorati via the Search Journal.

* More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
* 77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCannBlog
* Two-thirds of Bloggers are male (c%u2019mon ladies, start Blogging!)
* More than half are married and more than half are parents
* 60% are 18-44 * 75% have college degrees and 40% have graduate degrees
* One in four has an annual household income of $100K
* Around half of Bloggers are working on at least their second blog
* 68% have been blogging for two years or more
* 86% have been blogging for at least a year
* 70% of all respondents say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog
* 72% say they blog in order to share their expertise.
* 61% say they blog in order to supplement their income.
* 53% of professional Bloggers are interested in attracting new clients from blogging.
* 72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients.
* 57% say that their future plans include blogging even more (including 74% of 18-24 year olds).
* Part-Timers, Pros, and Self-Employed Bloggers are blogging as much as or more than ever (73%, 76% and 80%, respectively), while Hobbyists are blogging somewhat less.
* 15% of Bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging.
* One in five Bloggers report updating on a daily basis.
* The most common rate of updating is 2-3 times per week.
* The majority of blogs use tags (85%).
* 82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia.
* Bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to drive traffic to their blogs.
* 72% of respondents are classified as Hobbyists, meaning that they report no income related to blogging
 * 56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry.
* 58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog

These statistics paint a clear picture. Blogging is popular.Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilize with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom.

From an education perspective the availability and ease of use of blogging software makes creating blogs a viable classroom activity and a means for teachers to communicate with other teachers.

 For more information check out the websites

 http://classroom.blogging.com.
 http://supportblogging.com/links+to+school+bloggers