Pro's and Con's of public Assessment in Natural History

I have been playing with the idea of having my natural history students blog their field notes. Although all students will be at the same sites, each student will be bringing their personal knowledge into play and each will experience it differently. As I write the list below, I can see that it will be an awesome tool for learning & assessment.

• Cons of public assessment
• Fear of making a fool of one's self
• Risk of being shut down or rejected
• Using other's blogs as way of comparing oneself to others negatively
  
• Difference between public vs private identity
  
• Pros of public assessment
• Teaching is an awesome way of learning
• Ability to communicate knowledge (to peers)
• Feedback is essential
• Awareness that it is OK if you don't know everything
• "Thats a really great question for a grad student to undertake"
• Encourages creativity
• Using other's blogs as a way of looking at the same experience differently
• Teacher proofs evaluation!
• Could use clickers or other ways that allow evaluate/give feed back to each other
• Could build in collaboration
• Public feedback can increase confidence