Class blogs: a better way to teach?

We look at one teacher who's using blogging as a creative way of showcasing pupils' work

There was a time teachers lagged behind their pupils when it came to computers. 'We have to show them what to do every time it crashes,' eight-year-olds complained loftily to their parents.

But computers are at the centre of classroom learning these days, and are nowhere more creatively used than in the classroom blog. In the best of the class blogs I've seen, there's an opportunity for everyone to learn and everyone to teach – and there's built-in feedback and assessment .

Alex Wilson, who teaches years 5 and 6 at a school for children with learning difficulties, launched his class blog earlier this year, inspired by other class blogs and ideas circulating on Twitter. It's used mostly to showcase the work of the children, who have a wide range of difficulties including Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy.

What do they think of the blog? 'They are really up for it – it's a very willing class,' says Wilson.

'Before, if they learned a new song, they might get to perform it at assembly, or in an end-of-year concert for their parents. Now they can sing it, we record and upload it, and the same day their parents can hear them sing.'

Wilson uses a variety of websites with his classes.

• Using voicethread.com, he puts a picture up that represents the topic under discussion. Each participant has an icon representing their voice, and when it lights up you can hear their comment.

• They like to use audioboo to record themselves singing. Delightfully, you can hear them singing We're Going to Hang Out the Washing on the Siegfried Line on the blog – it's part of their work on the second world war.

Audioboo is great to use when they're on the move, says Wilson. 'We can be out and about, I take out my iPhone, the kids record something, and we upload it.'

• A rich source of historical photographs is historypin. On this site, photos are entered according to their date and place, so they produce historical records of every part of the world. Wilson's class used it to look at pictures of buildings bombed during the blitz and to see what the areas look like now.

At the moment, he's steering all the activity and operating the technology. But he's aware that some blogs give pupils more control of the output and he has plans to start giving his students more free rein.

Wilson says it's really important to his class that people comment on their blogposts: 'It gives them pride in their work, acknowledgement of their worth, and some understanding that there is a big wide world out there and people are listening to them.

'All the children in my class have learning difficulties, so how much they understand varies hugely, but when I read out the comments they are always quiet, always listening and always happy. They love it when people from different places comment, and they love it when their parents comment.'

'It's made me realise the importance of leaving comments (however short) on other class blogs. If it matters that much to me and my class, then it's the same in other classes. My resolution is to try and leave at least one comment a day on whichever blog I visit, no matter how tired I am or what the day has been like.'

More on class blogs

Tom Barret, a deputy headteacher, has some great advice about starting blogs on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter.

• Also look on Twitter at #classblogs

• Here's a class in New Zealand making short films about how earthquakes happen.

• And here's class 5 at John Davies primary getting to grips with punctuation

• There are a range of exciting class blogs from Healthfield CPS – the year 4s are doing Egypt. They've done a great slideshow using photopeach.

• It looks like aliens have invaded the blog of Class 9 at St John the Baptist in Southampton

• How to create a classroom blog by language teacher Jose Picardo on YouTube is a bit blurry but it has lots of good advice about using wordpress to set up a blog – and what to do with it once it's up and running. His website about technology and education is called boxoftricks.

So, what do you think? Are you running a class blog or thinking about starting one? Or do you reckon they're just the latest new-fangled plaything for geeky teachers?