I have tried setting up blogs before but didn't really know where I wanted to go with them.

This time I am bugging my daughter for ideas that she can really envision using in high school.  (OK-she doesn't actually use them but gave me the first suggestion under "Ideas")Although I do not (yet) use a cell phone that can sync to Google, many students do and this seems the most likely venue for them at this point in history-something for me to keep in mind.

Ideas:
Connecting with similar content area classes at other schools, sharing interpretation of material.

Mystery Material-Teacher posts a mineral sample photo and asks for guesses on composition.  Particularly useful in the fall when the periodic table of the elements is presented.

I used to have students do presentations in class of a Nobel Laureate in the sciences or medicine but we spent too much class time to justify it any more.  I think that students could use the blog to upload a link to a Glogster, Prezi, or VoiceThread project and hold students responsible for a set number of reasonable commentaries.  I see that we have lots of options in the menu for this sort of thing.

I look forward to reading YOUR ideas!