Should Students Be Required to Blog?

A short time after I began blogging, I decided to bring my students in on the action. I was thinking something along the line of the class scribe model that I had read about on Darren Karopatwa’s class blogs. I thought long and hard about how and where the students would blog. Also, about how I might teach them blogging and then assess them on their work. I don’t think I ever stopped and asked myself the question in the title. I just assumed it would be like any other assignment. I would give it and they would comply by doing it. However, if I’m looking for reflective writing, wouldn’t a standard journal writing be sufficient? If I’m assessing a student’s ability to carry on a coherent, empathetic discussion couldn’t that be done in the classroom? Why should students be required to blog? Is blogging a new type of writing skill that needs to be practiced by all students? Writing for the purpose of making connections; i.e. “Connective writing” as discussed by Will Richardson and Bud Hunt.
Do you require your students to blog?