Legal Commentary

This semester I'm experimenting with a class blog in my civil procedure class.  It is primarily for civil procedure in the news and is available only to students in the course.  Each student must blog once during their assigned week, but may blog more.  They are not graded on their posts.  In an ideal world, blogging might help them recognize procedural issues around them and practice making the main point concisely.  I've also told them that they should feel free to raise questions to which they don't know the answer.

I would love to hear about others' experience with using blogs in a course.  (And is it the same as using discussion boards?)  In particular, I'm concerned with getting students to read it regularly and with integrating it with the rest of the class.  One thought (although it might cause more problems than it would solve) would be to use one post in the semester as the basis for an exam question, a policy that I would announce up front with an eye to encouraging students to read and comment on the blog.  I also would like to use these news stories to mix up my two-hour, early morning Friday class.  Maybe by student presentations?  Maybe I would pick a story to highlight?  Your thoughts are welcome.