Joining Classroom 2.0

I am an English Language Arts teacher, and so glad to become part of the Classroom 2.0 community. I look forward to sharing ideas and activities with other teachers here, and to having a new way to communicate with my students and their families. I am reading "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" and I am hoping that, as author Will Richardson suggests, I can using blogging to "expand the walls of my classroom" (p. 27). Richardson says "the idea that the relevance of student work no longer ends at the classroom door can not only be a powerful motivator, but can also create a significant shift in the way we think about the assignments and work we ask of our students in the first place" (p. 27). I think it will lead me to create assignments that are more meaningful and more relevant, and that is what my students want. They always want to know WHY they have to learn things and often ask "When will we ever use this in real life?" If I can't answer those reasonable questions, I have lost them. Ironically, I think technology has the potential to help me connect with my students on a more personal level, too. After all, many are more comfortable expressing themselves online than they would ever be in the classroom. Have other teachers found this to be the case, too?