I’ve always been a firm believer in the usefulness of incorporating blogs (and other technology) into the classroom, but it’s sometimes been a little difficult to get others to understand my enthusiasm about giving students real world experiences with digital technologies. In a recent podcast, on Every Classroom Matters, entitled An Educator’s Guide to the Emerging, Expanding View of Digital Citizenship, Anne Collier, a member of the UN Internet Governors Forum and a Facebook Safety Advisory Board member, talks about the importance of students being actively involved in their digital environment. She believes we can’t simply tell students how to use digital media or how to be safe in the digital world. A lesson plan or a worksheet just won’t do it; living and experiencing digital media is the only way to develop understanding and skill. The analogy she uses is that it’s like teaching cooking without actually being in the kitchen. We need to allow students to participate responsibly in order to develop self-governance in their online lives. One of the best ways to do this is to allow students to use a blog to communicate with others around the world. Have a listen to this short (10 minute) podcast to hear how the things we are doing in LA19 are in line with research based theories of best practice in digital, experiential learning.