blogs

=Blogs in Education:=

H = High School
>
 * Web 2.0 tools: [|NY State Association of Independent Schools]
 * **Ideas from [|"Middle School Information Technology"]**

[|Social Studies Meets IT]: **Blogging in Social Studies**: We started out the year using blogs to learn about current events. Since then, these student blogs have expanded into a one-stop-shop for all social studies work, as well as a place to post other core subject material.
 * Grade 6**:

[|English Eight]: **Blogging in English**: Students are ready to communicate with a wider audience by posting their writing online and commenting.
 * Grade 8**:

BLOGGING ACTIVITIES

 * A first week diary for those early days in September //(//[|Sandaig Otters] //for lots of examples of this)//
 * Publishing daily work in shared writing during the literacy hour - possible uses of a Wiki to develop a longer piece of writing. (See [|Meole Brace English] blog for an example of developing creative writing using trackbacks, and [|Hopeblog] for their creative writing and podcasting).
 * Record and publish video to the blog of IWB notes or sessions.
 * Book reviews, share thoughts and comments (positive and negative) about books recently read - it will encourage reading! ([|http://web.mac.com/barbaraainscough/iWeb/Barbara%20Ainscough/Blogs.html)(Also] [|Meole Brace English] - using trackbacks from individual blogs)
 * A photo blog - upload favourite images linked to a theme eg. harvest, freezing, new life. Ask students to comment on reason why it's a favourite. (http://web.mac.com/barbaraainscough/iWeb/Barbara%20Ainscough/Blogs.html)([|Meole Brace Art] - reviewing famous artists' work which could extend to peer review. Follow the trackbacks to see the pictures. Podcast critiques, reviews and comments like [|here])
 * Comments about which leisure/ after school activities they are involved in - It might encourage other kids to have a go at something new. Provide some structure to the blog eg. Activity?, Times?, day of week? would you recommend it? star rating etc.
 * A daily weather blog - accurate records (eg. temp., rainfall, wind direction) through description and photographs. Just taking the old weather records to a different level!
 * Community of Practice - learning new software/developing an FAQ (Lacon Childe ICT [|here] and [|here])
 * Pupil feedback on units of study (As [|here] and [|here])
 * Podcasting in a foreign language (like [|here])
 * Podcasting weekly newsletters for parents (see [|here])
 * To get a few children started blogging I find template based poetry useful. Some of the posts at [|Poets] are of this sort, keeping the poems short is a good idea if you don't have many computers.
 * Book reviews can be illustrated with scans of children's art work, children seem to find using a scanner to scan there own pictures motivating ( [|example] )
 * Posting homework tasks every week - eg. maths problems, children to comment as their task.
 * Ask teachers within the school from other classes to comment on work - a weekly headteacher blog would be a nice way to comment on work across the school, I think I will ask my headteacher when we start!
 * [|Concept Cartoons] for science posted prior to a lesson or a week of work. Children are asked to comment on what they think will happen and then these can be used as a start to the first lesson or as an intitial assessment.
 * Post of video of SMARTBoard or IWB session during a maths lesson. For example the written methods for multiplication are included, the children can use it as a revision aid - the parents get to see how the school wants it set out AND the children get to comment on their favoured method.
 * Video of handwriting on IWB can also be posted in the same way.
 * "All about me - I am unique" (links to RE) posting simple CV work in the first few weeks - links to autobiography in Literacy.
 * Post homework maths problems to solve.
 * Local history - family members can be asked to help blog their memories of how the town / area has changed over the years. Perhaps post an old image from the past and ask grandparents etc to comment with children from your class.
 * Posting images from a digi microscope for the children to comment on. "What is under our microscope?" - or even asking for people to guess what the image is and to comment on the suggestions.
 * Post a health or ecological "problem" and have students come up with innovative solutions with proper research to back up the solution's feasibility.
 * Establish some safe guidelines then simply let the kids write about their world and ideas and thoughts.

BLOG EXAMPLES / BLOG DIRECTORIES From Classroomblogging

 * A blog about [|classroom displays]
 * An American page with examples about the various practical workflows that involve the process of blogging - very useful http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/bloggingtech/index.htm Blogging resources
 * An example of a book/ reading club for children and parents [|Secret Life of Bees] - this could be set up for a themed reading week and the school might be able to use a Skypecast facility to talk with the author!!
 * local copy of UK edubloggers' directory
 * [|Chrisopher D Sessum's] insights on blogging for education
 * [|Miles Berry]'s [|write-up of the first term blogging] with Year 6 using Elgg at St Ives.
 * [|Leon Cych] has set up a skeletal Wiki of schools blogging by LEA in England at http://engedublogs.wikispaces.com/ could LEA, Independent, Teaching and Advisory colleagues please feel free to populate this resource
 * [|Room One's Blog] - Year 2/3 students (6 & 7 year old) blog from Mapua School in New Zealand - used to document, share and celebrate our learning.
 * http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=993, http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1638 , http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=3527 Three examples of classblogmeister blogs from Our Lady Of Lourdes School, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

From [|Edutech Wiki]: Typical educational use includes, for example:
 * as a note taking tool in classes
 * to collect resources and ideas (with small comments and reflections). That is actually what most "academic" blogs do. E.g. a very fine "world class" example is [|Pasta & Vinegar].
 * as note taking tools for (before/during/after) field trips, e.g. to write down questions, observations, reflections, etc. See [|inquiry learning]
 * as a (class or project) [| management tool] (instead of a forum or any other writing tool).
 * as a collaborative tool {{comment | this is too vague ..}
 * as a news tool for a school or even a class
 * as a website (instead of a CMS tool or HTML pages)
 * as reflection tool
 * as discussion tool (either via the comment tool or within a multi-blog setup with trackbacks)

Teachers’ and students' approach to educational blogs
//Teachers' approach// Nowadays teachers are introducing in the classroom new kinds of [|technologies]. This fact involves an improvement in the means of learning but also a change in people's attitude when teaching or learning. Here I'm going to describe teachers’ attitude when they meet their students in blogs. Blogs as **means of teaching and learning** can be a useful tool for both students and learners. Thanks to this technology they get in touch on line; this fact provides a way to communicate openly without meeting each other face to face. Education blogs create a new kind of classroom: there, students and teachers meet beyond the boundaries of the school yard and they can improve their skills through continuous communication between them ( [|Glencoe Online], 2006). An English teacher, Will Richardson, (see [|Washington Post]), has written a book on web tools for classrooms. In his book he says that in 2002 he created a blog for his students about his literature course. The result was that this fact stimulated conversation outside class and permitted him to understand his students’ real interest about the course. He concluded that **blogs as teaching tools** provided transparency in the contact between him and his students. In a blog entitled [|“The question of teacher roles in Blogging –yet- traditional classrooms”], Barbara Ganley, explores **a teacher’s best attitude** to this technological tool. Her opinion might be summarized in at least seven rules, a teacher:
 * Has to be a consultant, a guide.
 * Shouldn't dominate the classroom.
 * Has to participate on the blog alongside the students.
 * Has to help students in working together.
 * Has to be present to set climate and select content.
 * Never has to use grades.
 * Has to stay out of the center of the blog.

Students, in this way, can have the chance to explore and complete their [|e-tivities] without anxiety for their final mark. However, the presence of the teacher is necessary to give them some feedback about the result of their work; then teachers stay alongside the blog, keeping on setting the tone and the mood but without imposing judgements or rules (Ganley, 2006). //Students’ approach// Nowadays **blogging** is being used more and more as a new [|learning technology] and many [|studies], which have been carried out in the last few years on the use of this new learning tool, demonstrate that it can be very useful for students and their learning process. This new technology can be very **useful** for students for several reasons: When students write on blogs they don’t come face to face with each other; this thing can spur them on to communicate between each other, especially those students who never intervene in discussions taking place in the classroom because of their shyness or because they are afraid of making mistakes. After having carried out an activity students are supposed to provide feedback on the post of their schoolfriends. For example, in the context of [|language learning], they analyse it from the point of view of grammar, content and finally, they express their opinion. This **response** is very useful for students as it helps them to learn from each other, correct their mistakes and avoid repeating them in the future. [|Eric Wiltse], a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wyoming, in his study **“Blog, Blog, Blog: Experiences with web logs in journalism classes”** describes his **students’ impressions** on their new experience: an online journalism class project on writing web logs or blogs. The general reaction of his students to this new project was positive. According to them:
 * writing on blogs students can express and exchange their interests, opinions and thoughts feeling themselves free from the teacher’s judgment;
 * they carry out their activities enjoying themselves and they don’t get bored as often happens with traditional activities taking place in the classroom;
 * thanks to blogging students can reflect on course material in a public way that encourages **feedback** on the activity carried out.
 * blogs are easier to create and change than journals they had written;
 * blogging is a very new and creative way to communicate with other people in your class and to read other group members' comments on the blogs;
 * the feedback given by other classmates is useful for improving the content of your personal blog;
 * blogging is more amusing than traditional activities and it stimulates the students;
 * thanks to the interection with other people which takes place on blogs people can enjoy themselves.

[|From Education World] ELEMENTARY BLOGGING IN ACTION Blogging: One Teacher's Experience Want to hear how blogging really works? Check out Brenda Dyck's article [|Log On To a Blog]. In it, Brenda describes her reasons for using blogs, suggests steps for getting started, offers student feedback, provides a rubric she uses to evaluate student blogs, and recommends links to more information. Educators know that students write better when they have a real audience -- not just a teacher with a red pen. In the past, finding such an audience was a challenge. But with Internet access and some basic software, any student can write for the world to see. Although blogging in schools is still in its infancy, anecdotal evidence suggests that students' interest in, and quantity of, writing increases when their work is published online and -- perhaps even more importantly -- when it is subject to reader comments. So, what do students in grades K-6 blog about? In its blog, Mr. Brune's 4th grade class at Mamaroneck Avenue School in Mamaroneck, New York, created an online commentary on today's news stories. At Shepard Elementary School in Columbia, Missouri, Mr. Villasana assigns to each of his fourth graders a day as class reporter. The assigned student must record the day's happenings on the [|Studio Four-News] blog. In Tampa, Florida, Mr. Roemer's Grade 5 [|Polar Bears] also chronicle the day's happenings in detail -- action photos accompany most entries. Upper elementary students aren't the only ones having the fun, however. At Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska, students writing for [|Mrs. Greenwald's First Grade Blog] describe one topic -- from the solar system to the history of Nebraska -- every two weeks; class photos and student drawings are included. And, in the United Kingdom, students as young as seven use [| Web logs] to acquire technical skills that some 15 or 16 year olds have not achieved. Even in early childhood classrooms, blogs can be a vital part of the learning process; young students can draw their entries rather than write them, narrate entries for the teacher to type in, or the teacher can enter one entry for the entire class. Check out the kindergarten blog from the [|Arlington Science Focus School] in Arlington, Virginia!