For a lot of teens (and some adults like me who blog regularly), blogging is a way to improve your writing, and in the process, find or stengthen your writing voice. I'm not talking about the majority of blog posts teens write, which are more about communicating, checking in or staying connected to their friends. I'm talking about teens who are using blogs to explore their thoughts and feelings or to express themselves creatively.

As I wrote the education chapter of Totally Wired, I quickly learned that while there are indeed pockets of very innovative teachers and librarians who have embraced social media like blogs, wikis or social networking sites and attempted to integrate them into the classroom, they are in the minority. And even teachers who are open to these technologies have reservations about the fairness of giving blogging assignments when some of their students still don't have Internet access at home. Some of them are also nervous about being able to moderate student posts (and deal with parents' complaints) or feel nervous about either having their own profiles on MySpace that are accessible to students or seeing what's on their students' profiles (especially seeing stuff they're not supposed to see). Still, the teachers I interviewed who had experimented with blogs said they were great for encouraging quieter students to participate. This makes sense given that technology or communicating via technology is much easier for teens who may be very shy offline.

USA Today ran a story this week about some teachers who are using blogs in the classroom and discovering how blogging can be a tool for strenghtening writing skills and encouraging participation. The article rightly points out that one of the biggest obstacles in teachers adopting blogging and similar technologies is the lack of teacher training and support around using technology. Check out the technology resources on the right hand side for teachers to begin exploring and experimenting with social media at school. There are also companies like Gaggle, that are creating social media specifically to be used by schools that automatically filter content and scan for offensive email or blog posts.