Blogging in the Classroom

Jennifer Gatz

Oct. 9th, 2009

www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/gatzwww.mrsgatz.blogspot.comDWMS Classblogmeister Blog Spot

What is a Blog?• A blog (a contraction of the term "weblog")[1] is

a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

-Wikipedia

Why blog?• In times of change , learners inherit the Earth,

while the learned finds themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Eric Hoffer

Are you and your students the learned or learners?

What is a Blog? - Classroom Resources

• Blogs In Plain English – Common Craft

• Brain Pop – What’s New in the Blogosphere?

Why blog? • Blogging allows you to easily create a webpage

with your own ideas, projects and classroom information. It’s a great way to share your ideas with fellow teachers, students and an awesome tool for parent communication.

• Blogs usually contain an RSS feed so that your readers can be automatically updated as articles/posts are added to the blog.

• Blogging is 21st Century Literacy

Why Blog with Your Students?• Why Blog with Students? – Teacher Tube

• Provides an authentic world wide audience for students thoughts and projects!

• Increased motivation for reading and writing.• Authentic way to teach about internet safety• Students are digital natives- blogging allows

them to utilize the things that come naturally to them…widgets, avatars, videos, etc.

• The list goes on and on!!

Blog Content Ideas

• You might like to create a reflective, journal-type blog to . . .• Reflect on your teaching experiences, what worked and

what didn’t in your classroom.• Provide teaching tips for other teachers or share

activities or lessons that you do in your classroom• Heights Technology BlogAdapted from Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Will Richardson),

pages 40-42

Blog Content Ideas• You might start a class blog to…

• Provide class related information such as a class calendar, assignments, events or other class information

• Post prompts for writing or reflecting on various topics• Post photos of class activities• Post student project examples• Make use of the commenting feature to have students

publish messages on topics being used to develop language skills

Ex:

Hufford’s Hot Hawaiian’s

Room 10 North West Valley School

Mr. Hancock’s Blog

Adapted from Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Will Richardson), pages 40-42

Blog Content IdeasYou can encourage your students to blog . . .

• their reactions to thought-provoking questions • their reactions to photos and content you post

journal entries • results of surveys they carry out as part of a class unit

their homework • their ideas and opinions about topics discussed in class

• Examples: • Mr. C’s AP History Blog

Adapted from Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Will Richardson), pages 40-42

Blog ContentYou can also ask your class to create a shared

blog to . . .• complete project work in small groups, assigning each

group a different task • showcase products of project-based learning • complete a WebQuest

Adapted from Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Will Richardson), pages 40-42

Blog Content IdeasYou can have your students create their own blogs to . . .

• complete class writing assignments • create an ongoing portfolio of samples of their writing or other projects • express their opinions on topics you are studying in class • write comments, opinions, or questions on daily news items or issues of

interest • discuss activities they did in class and tell what they think about them • Respond to information they’ve read and create ongoing discussions

Computer Lab Students

Blogging It’s Elementary – Resource Lessons for Beginning Blogging

Adapted from Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Will Richardson), pages 40-42

Setting Up Student Blogs

Things to think about:• Consent forms or district Acceptable Use Policy• Blogging Guidelines • Commenting Guidelines• Internet Safety Lessons• Blog security and setup – who can post comments,

who approves posts and comments, does setup require an email address, etc.

Bud the Teacher Wiki – Great Resource for starting student blogs

Blog Hosting Choices

Blogger.com is as easy or as advanced as you want it to be. Use one of their many nice looking templates or create your own. It supports enclosures (i.e. podcasts), but does not allow you to upload them. Some find the "Next Blog" link placed at the top of every page to be disconcerting, as they have no control over what blog it links to. (I don’t recommend for student Blogs)

EduBlogs A free blogging tool for teachers and students. "Create, manage and moderate blogs for all your students with a minimum of fuss." Over 90 themes available, too. "All posts are automatically spell-checked, auto-saved (so you never lose that post you’ve been working on for hours) come with a complete feature rich editor (with optional plain text view), allow for simple uploading of images and other files, are podcast ready and have automatic YouTube, Google Video and more video insertion devices… and that’s just a selection."

WordPress (the hosted version) free with over 60 themes available and statistics provided. (I don’t recommend for student blogs)

Blogmeister Another full-featured hosted blogging system designed specifically for students and teachers. You can create a blog with individual student sub-blogs. Free, but you must request a school registration code. You can find class blogs by others on the site, too.

Comparing Blogger & Edublogs

More Hosting Choices• 21Classes launch a class homepage and create individual blogs for students. Each

student receives 1 MB of space with the free edition. Teachers have access to a central console to manage student accounts and content.

• ClassChatter - ClassChatter is a safe, secure, and private blogging platform for students and teachers. It can be used to create individual student blogs, group blogs, and assignment blogs. ClassChatter is free of advertising and includes an email-like communication option.

• GaggleBlogs From the people who provide Gaggle email services for students and teachers, Gaggle blogs provides teacher administered blogs. Words and URLs are scanned and blocked when necessary, and the teacher can control access by specific students. Both free and fee accounts are offered.

• LearnerBlog • SchoolBlog from ePals "now available at no cost to schools, districts, and learners globally• Weebly- Free Teacher or Student Accounts • Edmodo – A private social platform for teachers and students to share ideas, files, events and

assignments. (looks a lot like facebook but works kind of like blackboard)

Using Blogger• Using Blogger

• Daniel Craig Wikispaces PDF Tutorial

• Using Edublogs

• Kate Olson’s Wikispaces PDF Tutorial

Using Edublogs

Using Class Blogmeister• Class Blogmeister Ning- Get answers to any

questions you may have

• Yahoo Class Blogmeister group

• Getting Started w/classblogmeister– Webb-ed Blog

Web 2.0 – Fun Tools for Blogging

• Embedit.in - Embed anything type of photo or document into your blog!

• Clustrmaps – Keeps track of where blog visitors are from• Slideshare - Adding a Clustr Map in Classblogmeister• Animoto – An easy way to make professional looking videos

from pictures• Slideshare- Upload and Share your word documents,

PowerPoint documents• Voicethread- cool way to share and comment on your images,

documents and videos• Teacher Tube- Embed videos into your blog • Glogster- Create your own online poster