There are other benefits as well:
- Students' perceptions of blogs: Paul Allison, a teacher in Flushing, NY, states that his students think of their blogs as "quasi-school" and are therefore more likely to write and enjoy writing (Pascopella and Richardson 48). The perception is that the blog is a personal space and driven by personal interest or passion. Similarly, Emily Van Noy's seventh grade students commented that blogging "isn't boring," called it "something different from pencil and paper," and deemed it "writing without writing" (Kajder and Bull 34). The educational aspect does not define the blog for students. This may allow students to work on their blogs without feeling "forced to write" -- blogging is akin to the other forms of digital communication children use in their free time. The students Sheelah Sweeny surveyed felt that their digital writing was completely separate from school writing (Sweeny 127). Students write constantly for non-academic reasons, and their positive associations with digital writing may carry over into blog-based units. Studies have also indicated the existence of an "online disinhibition effect," in which people communicating via the internet experience a decrease in inhibitions and hesitancy at expressing their opinions (Ellis 8). Though this effect may open the door for "acting out" online from the safety of one's desk chair, it can also make it easier for shy students to successfully share their writing (Ellis 8). In this way, teaching writing with the help of blogs may increase student interest by mimicking their independent writing, and reduce negative feelings toward writing through a sense of autonomy and disinhibition.
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- Ease of writing: In 2008, the Littleton Public Schools in Littleton, CO began a program to support writing instruction through use of laptops in the classroom. As of 2010, the district had a laptop for every student in Language Arts from grades 5-10 (Warschauer, Arada, and Zheng 221). Studies of blogs and blog comments written on those laptops as part of the writing curriculum revealed several perceived benefits to students. One of the key positive aspects of blogging with the laptops was the ease of writing. Students liked to blog due to "the benefits of spelling, grammar, and formatting tools; the ease with which they could edit work; and how writing by keyboard helped them to avoid fatigue and to stop worrying about handwriting" (Warschauer, Arada, and Zheng 222). One student in particular noted that his wrist pain had subsided and he could see massive progress in his own writing: "I've written my best essays, poems, summaries, anything, you name it" on the laptop (ibid). Computer-based writing may lower students inhibitions and alleviate barriers to transferring words from their brains to the page.
- Enjoyment: Research on adolescent use of technology shows a correlation between blogging and the enjoyment of writing. Dr. Christina Clark found that "young people who write on a blog were more likely than young people who do not write on a blog" to say they "enjoy writing in general (57% vs, 40%)" (Clark 1). A University of Florida study, which focused on "collaboration via blogs between [preservice] teachers and third-grade students," showed improved general attitudes toward writing in the third-graders, as well as engagement with the project topic during play time (Ramaswami 4).
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- Community, Collaboration, Conversation: Three important "C's" continually recur in literature relating to blogs and the teaching of writing: community, collaboration, and conversation. Pascopella and Richardson assert that "collaboration on every level is just a part of the equation today" (Pascopella and Richardson 49). The authors are referring to real-time collaborative platforms such as Google Docs, Diigo, GoToMeeting, and Skype, as well as inherently collaborative sites like Twitter and Facebook. Even at its most basic -- web searches, chats, and email -- the internet is defined by the acts of communicating with and relying on others. This collaboration helps to create communities of writers (a concept which will be familiar to readers of Jim Burke) beyond the walls of the classroom. Sometimes, the teacher is responsible for controlling the conversations students have: Shelbie Witte's 8th graders formed mutually-beneficial writing relationships with selected preservice teachers, and got to practice writing for a real audience while the teachers learned to respond to student writing. The comment feature on blogs, in which readers can enter their name and email address and leave a response, creates conversation between the author and readers the author may not know. Anne P. Davis and Ewa McGrail originally recruited readers for their students' blogs. Eventually, students received blog comments from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and many US states (Davis and McGrail 74-5). Students received thoughtful responses that expanded their thinking, as well as repeat comments from certain visitors in the form of reply threads. Not only did these 5th graders from Georgia participate in a writing community in their room by partaking in the blogging class, they were able to collaborate and converse in a worldwide community.

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- Writing for the Future: As noted in the introduction, young people are already writing via digital media. When teachers assist, guide, and help to shape this writing, it becomes relevant for the students' future lives and careers. One of the high school students involved in the Littleton Public Schools' laptop initiative noted gratefully that "there are very few jobs left that do not require knowledge of computers in some way. In colleges, students will be required to type up their papers, fill out online applications, and use the Internet to complete research papers. [Without technology skills], students will be unable to compete for places in colleges and for jobs in the work force" (Warschauer, Arada, and Zheng 223). This student's words summarize the issue well. Not only are students getting more experience writing by using blogs as part of writing instruction, they are also learning to navigate the increasingly digitized educational landscape. Using blogs in the classroom can help "develop [students's] digital fluency while also strengthening their traditional literacy skills" (Witte 92). In the University of Florida study, students did not receive "formal technology-related instruction," and yet they "became more proļ¬cient at keyboarding, formatting, conducting internet searches, toggling between several open programs, and cutting and pasting content from the blogs to their presentations" (Ramaswami 4). They were in third grade.
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- Writing Skills: The journal-like nature of blogging may help some students learn to organize their thoughts. One 11th grade English teacher in New Jersey had students keep a blog while they were writing research papers. The blogs were used as "a journal and [to] flesh out ideas for point/counterpoint argument" (Bachenheimer in Ramaswami 3). As the students researched for their papers, they were able to troubleshoot arguments, practice writing, and organize their thoughts on the blog. After the project was completed, 74% of students felt that the blog helped them articulate their ideas better (ibid). A majority of students also felt the blogs helped them get started writing, which, Rama Ramaswamy notes, is "compelling because 84% of students said that the hardest part of writing a research paper is starting" (ibid).