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The truth is, every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. My argument here is pretty simple–there is no perfect platform for student blogging because everything that does exactly what a teacher wants sucks for students, and anything that is exactly what a student wants will probably get a teacher fired.

seven quick reasons why Tumblr may be perfect for the writing / blogging / posting / literacy piece in your room: Students can post by email. There’s an “ask” system. It’s social-by-design. Hashtags, sharing, reblogging, tweeting–it operates both as social media and a blogging system. It’s flexible. It can be visual or textual; video or gifs; audio or links; conversational or one-sided. It’s already on their phones. Well, most of them. Though they may delete it when they found out that you know. It’s dead simple to use. Reblogging is an interesting way to share thinking–and simple too. Maybe too simple to be considered cognitive heavy lifting, but that’s all in how you use it. Liking posts, using hashtags, posting new blogs–all simple to do from a tablet, phone, laptop, or desktop. It’s platform-agnostic. It works (almost) equally well across operating systems, much like Evernote. In fact, it can be thought of as the Evernote of blogging platforms.

This article addresses the extent to which technology‐mediated social interactions dominate our daily lives, how we can leverage those interactions to the benefit of our learners, and how we can engage them in learning experiences in ways that will encourage them to practice language extensively.

The University System of Maryland now requires undergraduates to take 12 credits in alternative learning modes, including online. Texas has proposed a similar rule. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is pushing to have 25 percent of credits earned online by 2015.

In a test, there's no one telling you that you can't look at the book, says Ariel Hatten, 20, a junior and nursing major who considers her online class an easy A. "No one enforces you to do the right thing" in an online course, Ms. Hatten says. "It's at your discretion. I care about my grade, so if I don't know the answer, I'm not gonna let myself fail when I have an opportunity to look in the book."

When Central Florida began experimenting with online courses in the mid-1990s, it didn't expect demand from on-campus students like Ms. Black. Officials figured they'd get students who lived far away. But early on, about 75 percent of online students were already on the campus or lived nearby.