Web 2.0: Blogging 4 Beginners
Agenda
- Introductions
- What is Blogging?
- Possible Class Uses For a Blog
- What to Look For in a Blogging Service
- Blog Scavenger Hunt
- Legal Issues/Safety Concerns
- Hands On
- Links of Interest
According to Wikipedia, an on-line encyclopedia (http://wikipedia.org) “a blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.” What does that mean? A blog is an Internet diary, a web log. It is a fast and easy way to publish work to the Internet while knowing little or no HTML code. Letting the world know something is now as simple as writing an e-mail!
Possible Class Uses For a Blog
| Use | Description | What You Need |
| Weekly Class Updates | Publish a mini online newsletter once a week to keep parents informed on the happenings of your classroom and the curriculum being covered. Teachers or students can make the entries. | |
| Daily Homework | Put your homework list online so parents can check. This can be especially helpful when students are sick or away on a trip. |
|
| Calendar of Events | Create monthly calendar where you can post the important dates and events in your classroom. |
|
| Question of the Week | Boost your students’ and/or families’ viewing of the blog by publishing a weekly question to be answered. |
|
| Showcase of Student Work | Provide a space for students to share their work with the world! This is a great way to share work with relatives out of town. Also, students can engage in peer assessment of each other’s projects. |
|
| Book Reviews | Share comments on books that you and your students are reading. |
|
| Podcasting | Add a voice to your space! From recording the daily homework, to sending messages in another language, to recording news casts, the possibilities are endless! |
|
| Literature Circles | Publish students book talks. Record a podcast of their discussion, and/or upload student reflections to the books they read. |
|
| Videocasting | Why not bring your blog alive by adding a live video clip from your class? Send a message to a classmate overseas or teach the world how to do something, only your imagination can limit you here. |
|
| Geography Lesson | Find out who and how many people are viewing your blog. Where do they come from? Show your students a map and learn about who’s reading your posts! |
|
| Educational Links | Use your built-in Link/Blogroll manager to organize links for your students to have quick access |
|
| Class Newsletters | Put your traditional paper newsletter online |
|
What to Look For in a Blogging Service
Once you’ve decided what you’d like to do with your blog you need to pick a blogging service that has the features you need. There are many services out there, each with their own pros and cons. Some sacrifice features for simplicity, others give you tons of options, but can be confusing. This web page compares some of the most popular services to try and help you pick the service that’s right for you.
Educational blogs can be divided into four major types. Here are examples of all four. Look at them and try to discover what is similar in each grouping, and what makes each section unique. What would you call each type?
| Type A Blog 1 Blog 2 Blog 3 |
Type B Blog 1 Blog 2 Blog 3 |
| Type C Blog 1 Blog 2 Blog 3 |
Type D Blog 1 Blog 2 Blog 3 |
When you are finished comparing the blogs click here to see how we’ve grouped them.
As always keeping our students safe is our first priority. But how do we do that when we’re putting information out for everyone to see? We have to use common sense. Remember that in Canada you must get written informed consent from the parents or guardians before posting any work, information, photos, or name of a student. Once you have that just follow a few simple rules:
- Use only the student’s first name. In the case of two students with the same name use the middle initial or numbers to tell them apart.
- Never post individual photos of students. Photos should always be of three or more students, with no names posted.
- Do not use a student’s e-mail address. Either sign them up with a fake/temporary e-mail address or your own.
- Make sure all correspondence (ie. comment notification) is sent to your e-mail account, not the students.
- Secure the system so that nothing can be published without your consent (very easy to do with a WordPress blog)
- Talk about internet safety with your students, and remind them not to put any personal information on the blog.
If these precautions are taken, and a FOIP release form is signed, you have done everything in your power to protect the child, and will have shown due diligence.
There are so many different version of blogging programs out there, but for the most part they all work the same. Creating a post is like writing an e-mail. You add a subject (title) in a small box above the main writing area. Then you write your post in the large box, and most programs give you a “visual editor” so you can highlight and add formatting information to your post, just like you would when using a program like Microsoft Word. The last step is to hit the publish button – and your post is added to the public portion of your blog!
ATA Article: Technology in the Classroom: The Expanding World of the Web Blog
Education World Blogging Basics: Creating Student Journals on the Web
Techlearning.com: Writing with Web Blogs
Will Richardson’s Webblogg-ed.com
Teaching Today: Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom
