I am concerned that the article implicitly condones a wholesale abandonment of multiple forms of communication. While students might be more comfortable with forms of electronic communication (and such people will undoubtedly constitute the majority of the "developed" world within a generation), the world will still for the foreseeable future be using various media - the spoken word, the printed academic journal - that should be fostered regardless of students' comfort. I doubt Ms. White is attempting to do away with such methods of response, but citing students' feedback such as "you've taken away my voice" makes me uncomfortable. I would, as an educator, like to respond to such a statement by saying "if you can't use an electronic voice, let's help you develop another one." While students might prefer one voice, I hope we raise a generation with many voices to use in various contexts.
Secondarily, I am concerned with the privacy of a shared network of student bloggers and parents. While I will be the first to trumpet the ability of the parent to view and respond to their own student's work (a wonderful way to combat the dead-end question of "what did you do in school today?"), I would be uncomfortable having parents whom I've never met gain easy access to my children's work. If permission could be denied or granted, I would feel more comfortable. I hope to not err on the side of fear-mongering, but I believe easy access to students' schoolwork is a slippery slope.
On the whole, Ms. Witte's contributions should not be dismissed: she has found a way to not only continue communication among teachers and students, but for students to dialogue with texts they may have previously viewed as irrelevant.
