Blogging+in+the+Classroom

Blogging in the Classroom Blogging in the classroom is a good method to have students write across the curriculum about many different topics. The purpose of this activity is to understand the history, how blogging is implemented in education and have a few examples or resources to go to. Share how blogging would be used in your teaching area. Please remember to use different colors and your name!

Blogging in the classroom was a bit intimidating to me until I began to play with Weebly and saw how easily it can be integrated into a classroom website, even at the primary grade level. After watching the webinar, I see all of the possibilities that blogging can hold! Not only can a teacher communicate essential information and resources, but students can be practicing those critical 21st century skills of collaboration and communication in such a relevant and exciting way. A teacher can create class publications or videos and share them. Students can raise questions and begin rich, thought-provoking debates amongst themselves. I looked at //Blogger// and it seemed to be very flexible, easy, and free! While my blog lives on my weebly, I'm thinking about other teachers who may not have a classroom website and may just want to start small by creating a blog. I think that Blogger would be a great choice for them! As the edublog article said, with blogs, teachers are able to actually create multi-layered, in-depth, multimedia websites to keep everyone involved and informed. I was really glad to read some of the guidelines and look over the sample contract. This prompted me to go back into my weebly and visit the blog section, adding an important component. I tried to synthesize a lot of what the articles said into "kid friendly" terms and this is what I came up with for second grade: A few guidelines: Only use your first names. Always make sure your posts are school appropriate. Be sure that you are respectful of everyone participating in the blog and follow the Golden Rule. Treat others the way you would like to be treated! Be sure to check your spelling and make sure that your response makes sense! What do you think? Karen McDavitt

Karen, It's good you could see how ideas could transfer for early elementary students. Thanks for sharing your revisions of posted information so it works for second graders! Am sure others can do the same. Regarding Blogger, there is a link to other blogs at the top that not too many folks notice at first. Kids could easily go from their safe monitored blog to an adult something unmonitored blog without meaning to. There is a solution though. This can be removed by following a few simple steps. Here's a youtube to show you how. @http://youtu.be/hSMo4PEn_HI

Joanne

Blogging in the primary classroom is a fun interactive way for young readers and writers to interact via digital tools and a media platform. Blogging is an authentic and meaningful way to teach the tried but true reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills that are a part of our core curriculum as well as new 21st century skills of connecting, collaborating, and creating. I would love to build and embed blogging into my Daily5 Literacy Stations and meet my students learning needs expand their writing opportunities. During their visit to the iPad Invention Station, my students could read a daily post on our blog and respond with a partner or independently with a quality comment. With clear guidelines, I can facilitate my 21st century learners to apply knowledge in a way that is engaging and meaningful for them. I would also love to create and use student blogs as digital portfolios. If I want my young readers and writers to use their emerging skills, I have the opportunity to use these emerging skills and make their writing even more purposeful, challenging, interactive, and fun by using a blogging format. I see blogging as the way to go to accomplish this! I really like the idea that Karen suggested to make a Blogging Contract for our students that could be shared with parents also. My blog is also a part of my Weebly Classroom page and I think putting the contract on the Blog page is an excellent idea! I also created a simple blog contract and might use something like this… My Blog Contract Jennifer McPhillips
 * 1) Make smart choices…use your first name only to respond to a post.
 * 2) Be respectful and use your manners.
 * 3) Be really safe and do not give out your personal information.
 * 4) Be ready to learn and work with quality and care.
 * 5) Make your dear teacher happy and share our blog and this contract with your parents.

the elementry school teacher so students can have some consistancy as they move in to middle school.
Any tool that can help me understand what the kids are thinking will help me communicate with them.

Debbie Hathaway

=== Using blogging in the classroom on curriculum content, sharing opinions and reflections is a great opportunity for students to communicate, from home or school, and at the same time learn the valuable skills of communicating online in a controlled environment. I tried Edublog a few years ago with a 5th grade class, and the students were posting online //almost as soon as they walked in their house// after school! We couldn't believe how excited the students were to post comments! However, it was a big wake up call for us to help students learn to make thoughtful comments, not just say "I agree" without backing up their statements, as well as learn how to think about carefully choosing words to express their thoughts-less is more. This also was a great way to learn respectful digital citizenship skills. I liked the way Warlick defined wiki VS blog; Blog: " composing ideas in a "story-like" fashion, and it is all about "publishing." This is a great way to create independent writing, share with a class for other's to read, comment and enjoy. A "wiki is a group of people to collaborate and create a product, to be continually adapted." I see for own use, a wiki is more for what I am doing. However, as a classroom teacher, I think having student writing published for class-consumption is a wonderful way to join writing and technology skills, as well as meet the TPack model. === -Cassy

==== A few years back, Bill Daggett presented to the district and, at one point, asked everyone how familiar they were with several ‘digital terms’ including blogging. At the time, I had no idea what blogging was. David Warlick makes a reference to pamphlets being the first form of blogging which increased as people became more literate. Similarly, blogging has increased as people are becoming more digitally literate. It occurred to me that a few years back, I was digitally illiterate. This observation makes me painfully aware of how important digital literacy is in the 21st century, similar to the importance of literacy in the 20th century. Going forward I can see how a school’s responsibility toward helping students effectively navigate the Web will be as important as teaching them to read. How convenient that blogging supports literacy and literacy makes for a better blogger! ====

==== I also liked the way Warlick distinguished between a wiki and a blog and it makes me think that blogging on my classroom weebly is the best place for my preschoolers to share their ideas and post their pictures. It offers them simplicity, safety and structure as they are introduced to this important digital tool. My students are very young, and I am still looking for creative ways for them to blog. I am convinced that there are great ideas out there waiting to be discovered, so I will keep looking. Maybe I will blog about it! ====

Michelle Joyce

 * Judy Ritts on Blogging: **


 * Wow! I’m not sure how I will use blogging in my classroom in the fall. I think I need to learn and practice navigating blogging sites to learn more about blogging before I use blogging in my classroom with students. I was very impressed with David Warlick as I viewed the webinar, “Classroom Blogging Giving Students a Voice for Learning,” I love the title – as I think that is a true goal for me in my role as an educator – to activate and affirm student voice – to give them time to express their ideas and perceptions and to actively listen to one another – to stretch their thinking to higher ground. I do see now how blogging could help me achieve my goal for students. I liked David’s opening comments: “Think about how information is flowing.” Then the ‘Unconference: not to teach but to generate conversation,” “Respects and values the collective wisdom of the community” Hmm…those statements alone give one lotz to think about. What really hit me was his statement: “The shape of information has changed. It is now more participatory, not just to be consumed.” Throughout this series of integrating technology into education courses, it has become clearer and clearer that change needs to happen in the classroom. The students ‘wiring’ has changed, and the learning environment has changed significantly with the introduction of Web 2.0 tools. I ‘get’ that many – including myself- are still using technology in the classroom with the Web 1.0 tools approach of using Google to search for information. Period. Now, we need to think about how to expand our vision and use the tools to encourage collaboration, creativity and communication. As David Warwick says, Blogging is in the middle of those. He is quick to share that Blogging could be replaced by something else – but for right now – blogging is in the thick of helping people connect with one another in a safe secure place locally or from around the world. I liked the following quote from the webinar: “The power of a participatory environment to Put our ideas out there and it becomes part of the content of the world. We are generating content that we can learn from. Often times the answers to a brand new question…may come from something someone said in a blog…not from a book. I agree with his thinking. In his conclusion, he talked about the value of connectedness. I found this fascinating because I think we often as individuals are afraid that the digital world is making us more disconnected from one another. His finding is that blogging has actually increased peer interaction in the context of what they are learning. And that teacher are interacting more with students in the underground, in the subterranean space,the Blogosphere. I need to think more about his statement: “We want them to be motivated to learn which is what happens when more ideas being shared because students are communicating on more than one level.I also agreed with his closing insight regarding introducing blogging in the context of the content they are learning vs. just having them chat about their personal lives, as it’s harder then to get them back into the content mode. **


 * As I explored the other Edublog sites listed on the Moodle…I was amazed to keep finding David Warklick’s name – either an article posted written by him or his name listed on the author’s blog roll. On the Edublog: Blogging About the Web2.0 Connected Classroom : A Blend of Technology and Education. The author shared the following reflection which I found interesting: “It is my public reflection on technology, leadership and learning.” “Blogging changes that for kids (writing just for the teacher to read0. Now the audiene is global and anyone can read, and in some cases respond and comment. Kids can post their writing, projects, thoughts and reflections. Teachers can provide prompts or starters and kids can pick up and run with it.” I will definitely explore the site the author suggested: Comments4Kids which supports student blogging. Then I explored the Edublog site, High Techpectations. On the Blogroll I found an article on the “Ideas and Resources for Modern Educators” page by David Warlick that was posted July 17, 2014; “I Learn to Play and Play with What I Learn”; Category: information, learning, literacy, photography, shakabuku, teaching. Wow – the category listing alone will bring him lots of readers and lots of responses to further expand his thoughts. As I read the article, being an avid digital photo person, I made note of the digital tools David __Warlick__ ‘plays’ with to create his photographs: Photmatix Photoshop & Lightroom. At the end of his article, he states: “My point is that I learn in order to play/work, and I play/work with what I learn, and there is no real point where one stops and the other starts. Might classrooms be a little more like that?” His statement does make me want to explore the possibilities of blogging in the classroom. Also, I did try to find a blogging site for Orton-Gillingham and remedial reading strategies…I didn’t have great success. If anyone has suggestions on how to actually find interesting blogging sites to explore I would appreciate hearing your ideas. ** Judy Ritts