ENGL 104 online

I'm creating an online ENGL 104 Introduction to Literature course for Fall 2009, and I want the course to be interactive and have a real-world connection. So, I'm thinking that maybe asking students to use and maintain blogs about their reading would be a good way to address these goals. I like that the blogs are personal, we can include photos, and students and friends can comment. I'm a little concerned about teaching students to use blogs at a distance and about the time commitment required of us all to maintain and read the blogs. But, I would be assigning reading journals if the students were on campus, so perhaps this is a good substitute. I'll play around a little more with this and see what I think...