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Technology in Literacy Education: Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet ProjectsAuthor(s): Erica Boling, Jill Castek, Lisa Zawilinski, Karen Barton and Theresa NierlichSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 61, No. 6 (Mar., 2008), pp. 504-506Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204621 .
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TECHNOLOGY IN LITERACY EDUCATION
Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects Erica Boling, Jill Castek, Lisa Zawilinski, Karen Barton, Theresa Nierlich
opular technologies offer new and exciting
ways to capitalize on the strengths of authen
tic writing, the power of the writing process,
and the engagement of collaborative writing. In this
column, we showcase students using some of these
new technologies. The first vignette focuses on using
blogs in the classroom. Blogs are websites that allow
individuals to create personal webpages of text, pic
tures, graphics, videos, and other multimedia with the
same ease as creating a word processing document.
Unlike traditional websites, however, they provide a
space where people can post comments and engage in online conversations. The second vignette illus
trates the power of collaborative writing using Internet
projects.
Classroom Blogging (by Erica Boling) Using laptop computers, Julia Siporin's third-grade stu
dents eagerly write blog responses to their buddy, Jefferson Bear. Jefferson, a light brown teddy bear
who is the host of Ms. Siporin's class blog, regularly writes to students and asks them to share their
thoughts and opinions about various class topics. In
this week's blog, Jefferson informs students that he is
very concerned about all of his endangered wildlife
friends. "What's being done to help my endangered animal friends? You've got to do something. Please!
They need your help." Students prepare their respons es by conducting online research using websites that
are provided by their teacher. One child responds,
Hi Jefforson there are 7 laws that protect endangered an
imals...there are also these acts that protect them the
The Reading Teacher, 67(6), pp. 504-506
504 DOM0.1598/RT.61.6.10
Bald and Golden Eagle act Migratory Bird Treaty Act
Lacey act Marine Mammal Protection Act Airborne
Hunting Act And more! Dawn: ).
On another day, Jefferson asks students to share
their experiences and suggestions for how individu
als might respond when being teased. Sara (all stu
dent names are pseudonyms) advises, "You should
ask the girl to please stop in a nice way like this: I
would really like it if you would please stop taking my
pencils, calling me names, and talking when I need
to work."
In another classroom, Betty Collum is looking for
innovative ways to motivate and engage her fourth
grade readers. She decides to create a class blog so
that students can participate in online literature dis
cussions. Working in groups, students read short
pieces of text following a literature-circle format. Each
student then selects and writes about a strike (some
thing that stands out) and a wonder (a question) on
their class blog. As they blog about their strikes and
wonders, they share their ideas with a group of more
advanced readers who live more than 100 miles away.
Anna writes this about one story: "A wonder I have is if
they locked her in a kitchen how come there isn't an
oven, flour, eggs, sugar, and the other ingredents?" Another student replies, "To Anna: I wonder why lock
her in a kitchen and not a doungan. Because she
could escape from a kitchen."
Ms. Collum notices how blogging helps her once
reticent readers and writers to share ideas and litera
ture response, so she decides to expand her use of
blogs the following year when teaching creative writ
ing to fifth graders. Once again, her students select and
read novels following the literature-circle model, but
? 2008 International Reading Association
ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online
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this year they respond by creating poems. Students re
vise and edit their poems using Google Docs
(www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tourl.html)?an online collaborative writing site. The students also au
diotape the reading of their finished poems. The poet
ry text and audio files are sent to Kevin Hodgson, a
sixth-grade writing teacher, who posts the recordings on his Youth Radio blog (youthradio.wordpress.com).
Mr. Hodgson created Youth Radio so that "y?unS writers and voices can connect with news stories
about their communities, their schools, and their inter
ests via 'audio casting' (and podcasting)." In one of
his class activities, Mr. Hodgson asks a student to pho
tograph a beautiful snowy day in Massachusetts. Other
students prepare and record audio commentary to ac
company the picture on the Youth Radio blog. After sharing their photograph and commentary on
the Youth Radio site, Mr. Hodgson's class begins blog
ging with students in the Philippines, describing what it
is like to live in a snowy climate. Angel writes back,
"Even if we don't have snow here, it's like I'm already
experiencing after hearing the story. Thank you very
much for making me experience what it's like to expe
rience snow." As both classes share audio recordings,
images, and written blog responses, they engage in au
thentic literacy activities and begin to learn about one
another and their respective countries.
When teachers act as moderators and create blogs such as The Adventures of Jefferson Bear and Youth
Radio, they provide students with opportunities to
connect safely with real audiences while learning about different communities and cultures. This, in
turn, can result in increased motivation and literacy
engagement as students read, write, create, and pro
duce for meaningful and authentic purposes.
Collaborative Internet
Projects (by Jill Castek, Lisa
Zawilinski, Karen Barton, and Theresa Nierlich) Preparing for our month-long collaborative Internet
project sparked a familiar anxiety: Would the tech
nology work? Could we teach this way? We navigated these concerns by generating ways to address each
of the obstacles. In the process, we learned valuable
lessons in collaboration and problem solving.
Learn More About Internet
Projects and Blogs Internet Projects
A Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration on
the Internet
www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tech/international/index .html
Internet Project Registry Sites
www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tech/international/guide
_pg2.html
An Internet Collaboration Model: Speaking From
Experience
www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow7/mar99/collaboration.pdf
Collaborating in the Global Classroom
nschubert.home.mchsi.com/education/index.html
Blogs Will Richardson's blog
weblogg-ed.com
Reflections on Classroom Use of Blogs
jsiporin.motime.com
The Education Podcast Network
www.epnweb.org
The Adventures of Jefferson Bear
www.jeffersonbear.motime.com
The Adventures of Jefferson Bear Renewed
web.mac.com/jsiporin/iWeb
Links to Various School Bloggers
supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
Youth Radio: Connecting Youth Voices to the
World
youthradio.wordpress.com
Inspirations?Blogosphere (video)
www.teachers.tv/video/167
Edublogs
edublogs.org
Word Press
wordpress.org
Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects 505
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Internet projects unite classrooms in exploring com
mon topics (Leu, 2001). Our partnership included a
fifth-grade class in Connecticut, a fourth- and fifth-grade combination class in California, and two online reading
comprehension researchers (one in each of these re
spective locations). We housed our project on a "wiki"
website?a type of site that makes it easy to share re
sources, write collaboratively, and dialogue about the
process. Students in both classes worked together to (a) research national parks in the United States, (b) find out
about the activities each park offered, and (c) create a
wiki page about each park. The final product was a col
lection of persuasive pieces designed to encourage a
fifth-grade exchange student to visit one of the parks. We designed the project to address our language
arts and social studies standards and to give our stu
dents experience using the Internet. Instruction cen
tered on teaching students strategies such as
identifying problems, locating online resources, criti
cally evaluating information, and sharing ideas, all of
which are essential new literacies for using the Internet
for literacy learning (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack,
2004). Along with our students, we created new defini
tions of reading and writing that transformed our con
ventional notions of school-based literacy into events
that were enjoyable, real world, and social.
"The wikis took a lot of patience and we needed to
make a LOT of revisions. We sometimes argued about
what to put on our site but overall, it was pretty fun,"
explained Jason and Abigail, fifth graders in Mrs.
Barton's class. "We spent a lot of time sharing ideas on
our wikis instead of doing regular work. :-)"
Writing for an audience of their peers motivated
both classes to extensively revise and edit. In contrast
to pencil-and-paper writing activities, students enthusi
astically reworked their ideas to help their virtual part ners grasp the ideas they wanted to communicate.
Our project invited collaboration within the class
room as well as between classrooms. Throughout the
project, students were asked by their peers to demon
strate strategies for accomplishing new tasks, often
times going above and beyond what the assignment
required. These strategies spread contagiously
throughout the classroom. One of our struggling read
ers, experienced in using the Internet, often initiated
the flow of information. Being an in-demand expert
empowered this learner, increasing his literacy en
gagement and proficiency. "Neal, can you show us
how to insert pictures like you did on your wiki?"
asked Paige. "Then I'll show Brianna's group." We came to understand that today's students pos
sess knowledge about the Internet that we, as teach
ers, have not yet acquired. Inviting our students to
play the role of "expert" is not always comfortable be
cause it means we must teach differently. We believe
it is worth the risk.
Jennifer and Andre's comments sum up what
many students shared about the experience: "We en
joyed doing the project. It was hard in the beginning, but when we got used to the wiki, it was much easier.
I hope I can do this again!" We couldn't have said it
better ourselves.
Boling teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
New Jersey, USA; e-mail [email protected]. Castek is a researcher with the Seeds of
Science/Roots of Reading Project at the University of
California?Berkeley, USA; e-mailjill.castek@sbc
global.net. Zawilinski is a doctoral student at the
University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA. Barton teaches
at Tootin Hills Elementary School, Simsbury, Connecticut. Nierlich teaches at Mission Elementary
School, Antioch, California.
References
Leu, DJ., Jr. (2001). Internet Project: Preparing students for new lit
eracies in a global village. Retrieved Sept. 18, 2007, from
www.readingonIine.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/
electronic/RT/3^)l_Column/index.html
Leu, DJ., Jr., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J.L., & Cammack, D. (2004). Towards a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet
and other information and communication technologies. In
R.B. Ruddell & N. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and process es of reading (5th ed., pp. 1570-1613). Newark, DE: International
Reading Association.
The department editors welcome reader comments. Ernest Balajthy teaches at the State University of New York at Geneseo, USA; e-mail [email protected]. Rebecca S. Anderson teaches at the
University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; e-mail [email protected]. The Technology in Literacy Education department will appear again in the September 2008 issue of The Reading Teacher.
506 The Reading Teacher Vol. 61, No. 6 March 2008
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