Blogging in the Classroom

By: Dustin Ecker

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page Slide 1 Table of Contents Slide 2 “Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson!” Summary 1 Slide 3 “Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson!” Summary 2 Slide 4 Personal Reflection Slide 5 “Log On to a Blog” Summary 1 Slide 6 “Log On to a Blog “ Summary 2 Slide 7 Personal Reflection Slide 8 “Blogging and RSS- The “What’s It?” and “How To” of Powerful New

Web Tools for Educators” Summary 1Slide 9

“Blogging and RSS- “The “What’s It?” and “How To” Powerful New Web Tools for Educators” Summary 2

Slide 10 Personal Reflection Slide 11 Conclusion Slide 12 Works Cited Slide 13 Favorite Quotes Slide 14

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“BLOGGING? IT'S ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON!”

Blogs are an online journal or diary that a child as young as kindergarten can create.

Blogging allows them to post entries, upload pictures, and videos. Over the years blogs have turned into just more than diary entries for the public.

Today, blogs are used to publish news and ideas, as well as posting ideas or thoughts in a quick manner. Because blogging is a fun way for kids to write, studies show that children write more.

It is also proven that when children use blogs, they write with more detail and are more cautious with spelling and grammar errors. Children take more time to edit their work knowing that the blog will be posted online where everyone can see their work.

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“BLOGGING? IT'S ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON!”

What are some user-friendly and safe sites that your children can use to create a blog? Kindzblog -this blog is an easy and secure way to download a

blogging site onto the computer. Students sign up by choosing a name. A student will have no access to this webpage until a teacher has typed in the appropriate password.

Thingamablog- another secure site that cab be downloaded onto a PC or MAC. This site requires a website hosted from the school or district to be accessible.

Safety while using blogs. Because a child’s name and possibly pictures will be published

on the site for anyone to see, make sure that people viewing the blog cannot match the child’s name with the picture. It is also important that the teacher is the only one that has a password to publish the final project before posting it online. This allows the teacher to monitor what goes up onto the site.

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PERSONAL REFLECTION This website was a good for teachers to read before using

blogging in their classroom. I thought that the teacher having the only password to log onto the blog was a good idea so that they could monitor what the child was writing before publishing it online.

Another thing that I liked was that they separated the different blogs into categories by the each grade. (Different blogs were more suitable for older kids.) The website provided helpful tips that could be resourceful to a teacher who is looking to use blogs in their classroom.

I also really liked and agreed with the website when it said that comments that are left on the child’s blog will boost their confidence. I think that is very important while growing up. Blogs are a great way for a child to write in and creative and fun way! They are able to apply different colors and pictures so that they blog will fit their personality. 5

LOG ON TO A BLOGThis article is about Brenda Dyck, a

teacher, and her first time ever blogging and the experiences that she had. Dyck refers to blogs as “online thinking spaces.” She used blogging in her classroom and assigned her kids to a project entitled The Eleanor Rigby Project. In this assignment each student was to explore facts that involved homelessness. ( Why and what kept these people out of their homes and in the streets.) Because blogging is an easy way to record your thoughts, Dyck believed that online blogging would be a good place for this to occur. The students could put their thoughts in a section of the blogs as well as, answer questions that she had posted. Each student used Blooger.com to complete the assignment that Dyck had constructed.

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LOG ON TO A BLOG The article includes an excerpt from one of the

students blogs. The blog makes reference to a Dixie Chicks song about what “home” really is. Extremely pleased with the student’s post, Dyck was able to respond to the student’s post displaying her satisfaction with the student’s work. Dyck used a blogging rubric that she used to grade each student’s completed blog. By using Blogger, Dyck was able to see her students’ thoughts on the issue. She says it also gave her a different view other than her own on the issue. She says that the students seemed more driven to do the assignment on Blogger because they could make it there own, unique work.

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PERSONAL REFLECTION I thought that this article was very

resourceful. It was interesting to see how blogging worked in a teacher’s point of view. It seemed like blogging in her classroom was a success. I thought that her assignment was perfect for blogging. The students were able to keep there thoughts AND their work all in one place. Because computers are becoming so important in our education today, it is good that teachers are starting to use this form of technology to assign students school work. I liked that Dyck admitted to learning something about the subject and not just the students. (Again, her view on the subject changed after she was able to read over her student’s thoughts and ideas about the subject.) After seeing this article I began to think of my classroom and how I can use blogging with my students.

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BLOGGING AND RSS — THE "WHAT'S IT?" AND "HOW TO" OF POWERFUL NEW WEB

TOOLS FOR EDUCATORS.

Will Richardson, Supervisor of Instructional Technology at Hunterdon Central Regional High School writes his article on blogging and the idea that blogging has been at the tips of our fingers for a quite a few years, but that we are now starting to be heavily used in classrooms all over the world.

Richardson believes that using the Internet is a vital tool in communication when it comes to school work. By using blogs, Jackson believes that we, as students, will not only be readers of the world wide web, but also writers of the world wide web.

What important blogs have been used in recent times? With the elections just recent, blogging was one way

that presidential candidates were able to get their information out to the citizens, and also let them comment on what was posted on the blog.

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BLOGGING AND RSS — THE "WHAT'S IT?" AND "HOW TO" OF POWERFUL NEW WEB

TOOLS FOR EDUCATORS Richardson said that blogging has not been used in the

education field until now because of privacy and security reasons. As the years pass more and more students, teachers, and parents are accessing these resource, making it hard to not use.

Teachers can use blogging to post events and what the children learning in the classroom so that parents can see. Blogging is a more efficient way of posting these important details. Richardson writes about a principal at an elementary school in Oregon. The principal there believes that blogging is the most efficient way to report information from him to the parents. He says that the best part about online blogging is that it is cheaper than using paper to send out these bulletins.

Many blog sites are free so it does not cost the school a cent to publish important information. The article also shows different ways that you can use blogs. Teachers can use blogs for continue conversations over homework or readings outside of class. Another teacher used blogs to help improve their reading skills.

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PERSONAL REFLECTION After reading this article it gave me ideas that I

could use when I become a teacher. I agree and said that blogs are a better way to have communication between teachers and parents. It is more likely that a bulletin will reach a parent from online than if it was given to a child to take home. ( Some kids might lose the paper on the bus or never end up taking it home.)

Blogs also help a student and a teacher have communication outside of school. After taking this online course, I now see that communication is crucial in learning and blogs could be a very efficient way to gain that communication.

Overall, this assignment has helped see how blogs can really be helpful in an educational setting, whether it be used for an assignment or as a means for communication between the teacher and the parents.

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CONCLUSION After reading over all three articles, I realized that

blogging was more than just a fun way for a child to express themselves. Blogging is proven to make children pay more attention to their final work because it will be able to be seen by people other than the teacher.

Blogging is also good for self esteem, a student’s blog allows others to post comments on their page about what they have created in their blog. Blogging is now safe in the classroom so parents will not have to worry about predators trying to find their children. The three articles gave nothing but positive comments about blogging and have convinced me that it is efficient and safe enough to use in my classroom.

Computers are an important aspect in education and will continue to grow as the years progress. If children are started off early using computers, then they will be able to develop useful skills they will use throughout their entire lives, and blogging is most certainly one of those useful skills they will use in life.

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Dyck, Brenda. "Log On to a Blog." 03 May 2004. Education World. 14 Nov. 2008<http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/voice/voice123.shtml>.

Jackson, Lorrie. "“Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson!” 2005.Education World. 13 Nov. 2008

<http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtm>.

Richardson, Will. "Blogging and RSS — The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators." Jan.-Feb. 2004.

Information Today, Inc. 13 Nov. 2008<http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/jan04/richardson.shtml>.

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FAVORITE QUOTES “Their blogs would be their workspaces; they would be

places where students could "debrief" -- write their thoughts -- after our daily classroom discussions, and they would be jumping-off points for future classroom interactions” (Dyck).

“Two new Internet technologies, Weblogs and RSS (Real Simple Syndication), are redefining the way students and teachers use the Internet, turning them from mere readers into writers to the Web as well, and making it easier to filter and track the ever-growing number of resources coming online each day. In fast-growing numbers, educators across the country and throughout the world are finding just how powerful this new interactive Internet can be”(Richardson).

“Research has long shown that students write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to an authentic audience over the Internet” (Jackson). 14