Generative technology like blogs, wikis and podcasts lets every student have a voice. A student who is usually non-participatory in class may find posting on the web a better outlet for his/ her reflections. Classmates also get to see each others' opinions and respond to each other, cultivating social learning environment. The classroom is brought into the real world when anyone on the web can respond to a student’s posts. A student’s efforts and opinions being publicly available and open to others’ comments may give students a sense of value in their work that a teacher and classmates are sometimes unable to give them. I especially liked Rebecca Blood’s observations of her own blogging in her essay Weblogs: A History and Perspective: “I began to value more highly my own point of view. In composing my link text every day I carefully considered my own opinions and ideas, and I began to feel that my perspective was unique and important.”

I went to Bob Sprankle’s website and checked out some of his students’ “corners.” They had posted some poems, and many of the comments they received were from students out in Texas, and some parents even made a post. During their podcast, they informed us that people from all over the world listened and responded to their podcasts. One student said, ““it’s like we’re reading to the world,” and it “helps us express ourselves so we can read to everybody, so we can talk to everybody” Knowing that people from all over were listening to their words must have made them feel proud about their work. This supports the technology integration principles of “Help students realize they are part of a bigger picture,” and “Empower students to be more self-directed.”

Teachers can have a more efficient way of evaluating what their students know and think about with a class wiki or blog. Assessing how well each student understood a lesson or knowing all their thoughts and questions isn’t possible during a regular school day. But with a class blog, where every student can post their work and questions, teachers can get a better look into the minds of their students, and can post their responses. This also ties into the technology integration principle “Provide a new way for teachers and parents to communicate.”