Advantages/Disadvantages of Blogs

Of all the advantages of blogs, I feel that the biggest one is the fact that a person can post what they need to very easily and other people can see this and comment immediately on the post. With a website updates take a little longer and to post comments you almost always need to email the person instead of just leaving it on the page. In a classroom setting, this makes discussion very easy to do outside of the room. It keeps the classroom connected and can cut down the amount of time used within the classroom to hear everyones points of view while still having everyone hear the views of their peers. It also allows for everyones opinions to be heard without making anybody feel uncomfortable stating their views in class.
The biggest disadvantage to a blog is that anybody can have access to your blog and the discussion that is going on. In a classroom setting it may be better to have a private discussion board on some topics so that the wrong people do not get a hold of the conversation, especially if there is a controversial topic being discussed. With your blog available to everyone, this may set up some security issues if full names and locations of your students are available.