Blogging About Group Projects

I thought of a way to use the blog to solve an age old problem with doing group work in class. Students always complain that one or two members of the group do all the work, or that one group member slacks off yet gets credit for the work that the rest do. Right now both my English 10 and Science Fiction classes are working on group projects, and I’m having them blog about their progress. They can either rotate the responsibility for reporting the group’s work, or the members of the group can each report their progress individually. With the record of what each student says they have done there for all to see, students can monitor one another and comment on the blog if they feel the report of their work is inaccurate. The instructions I’ve given the students (somewhat different for each class) are posted on the class blogs at sale5th.blogspot.com and salesf.blogspot.com.