Educational Blogging: response to Stephen Downs

Educational blogging sounds great.  Opinions applaud the ability for blogging to reach kids and connect them to a community, link them to the world and information awaiting them in links provided by teachers.   Educationally the motive would be to do the work, get good grades, see what teachers feedback is and interact with peers.  I see the benefit of developing a writing practice and it does shed light on teaching web research methods that are well guided by teachers and helpful to students in the future. The  article by Stephen Downs says blogging promotes reflective analysis, helps kids share strengths and weaknesses and share point of view in a non threatening forum.  As a portion of an educational experience  this sounds promising.

I wonder if children are motivated to sit at the computer and read the screen in a comprehensive manner? Statistics often state that kids don’t go outside or exercise that much anymore maybe they are blogging probably they are playing video games, texting and watching tv.  I expect that they are blogging to fulfill an assignment.  I spent time as a kid sitting around reading books and writing in journals for my own enjoyment, no one corrected them.  The purpose was to express myself.  I think a journal for school being read by a teacher is a different kind of journal with a different purpose than free writing.  It is more about form, responding to a questions and doing your homework.  It is a formal exercise in writing.