Blogs

=What is a blog?= This is my Delicious account where you may find blog links of interest to your teaching field [] "blog" is short for "web log" -- a website where an individual (or a group of people) can post entries, usually in chronological order (with the most recent at the top of the page) ... Think of a blog posting as a short article and think of a blog as a personal magazine ..... The frequency of posts varies dramatically, with some posting daily, others monthly, and others only when they have something burning to say. Watch this [|Common Craft] video for a visual introduction: media type="custom" key="4085017"

=Blogs=

Teachers use blogs to share and gather ideas and to stay informed with the latest developments in their field of specialty. There are thousands, probably millions, of participants in the 'edublogosphere', all happy to share their ideas with you and engage in meaningful dialogue about educational issues. In the classroom, blogs are used to create collaborative learning spaces where teachers and students make discoveries, share ideas and discuss important topics.

__Popular blog creation sites:__
[|Blogger] [www.blogger.com] - General [|Wordpress] [www.wordpress.com] - General [|Blogstream] [[|http://www.blogstream.com]] - General [|Edublogs] [www.edublogs.org] - K12 specific This one is free but your students have to have an email account. It also only lets you set them up one at a time. Ask me and I'll tell you how to get around this problem with the gmail trick. You can get more features and ease of use if you want to become a supporter for up to $39.95/year. [|Class Blogmeister] [classblogmeister.com] - K12 specific but not as slick looking as the others. Student blogs are only posted in the teacher blog once teacher has granted permission. Great feature included for teacher input and corrections. [|ClassPress.com] - K12 specific This one is not free, $29.95/year per teacher. You can make as many class and student blogs as you need. It looks worth the price. No student emails are required.

__Educational benefits / classroom applications:__

 * Research shows that blogging promotes critical and analytical thinking.
 * Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction.
 * Blogs allow students and teachers to contribute to a wider body of knowledge. People from outside your school can benefit from reading your blog.
 * Create a class portal where students can access supplemental materials, syllabuses, homework, assignment rubrics and other communications.
 * A blog makes a great class website where students, parents and the general community can keep informed about classroom events.
 * Students can collaborate with each other online, sharing ideas and learning from each other.
 * Classrooms can be opened up to a wider community, allowing other schools to collaborate on projects.
 * Students can submit work electronically to a blog, creating a central repository for all completed work.
 * Students' work can be archived into a culminating e-portfolio.
 * Schools and departments can use blogs to archive minutes from meetings, create ongoing dialogues, share links and store documents and presentations.
 * Materials and resources can be archived online for easy locating in the future.
 * Blogging in schools allows for online assessment and interaction with the user.

__Concerns and solutions:__

 * Blogs are posted to the World Wide Web and can be viewed by anyone. Student privacy is paramount. Never publish last names or personal details of students. Teachers should discuss privacy issues in detail before allowing their students to blog.
 * Blogs display what your students produce, warts and all. Students will misspell words and use poor grammar. Teachers should work with their students on this and form strategies to minimize embarrassing entries.
 * Teachers should review their school's Acceptable Use Policy with their students to ensure that discussions remain clean and on topic.
 * Comments to your blog can be moderated if you are worried about abuses from outsiders. You can choose to approve all comments, rather than allowing comments to automatically appear.
 * You can delete or edit anything you wish after it has been posted on a blog.
 * You can preview students posts before letting them become public.

=Blogs with an educational focus=

A great place to find great educational blogs -- annual awards are given in many categories. You might as well start by looking at the best, i.e., the award winners. What you Wanted to Know about Student Blogging Post from Sue Waters

[|Check Out Class Blogs]: "This page has been set up so you can check out different types of class blogs to get ideas for your own class blog. You could also use this list to make connections with classes in other countries."

A wiki that lists links to hundreds of educational blogs -- class blogs, student blogs, principal blogs, administrator blogs etc.

__Real-World Examples From teachers:__
> - Mr. Brune's 2007-2008 5th grade class in Mamaroneck, NY, USA
 * [|iTeacher] - a blog about embedding technology into teaching and learning by Andrew Robitaille
 * Mr. Williams 6th Grade Math (Sunset Vista Elementary School - Glendale, AZ)
 * [|Room 9] - a classroom of students in Grade 2/3 from New Zealand (Teacher: Rachel Boyd)
 * [|Navigators] - New Zealand classroom of Year 5 & 6 (9-11 year olds) children (Teacher: Jody Hayes)
 * [|The Reflective Teacher] - by Mr. Murphy, an 8th-grade language arts teacher
 * [|Oowey, Goowey, Marshmallows and other Writeabilities] by the Elementary Writing Chef (Arkansas)
 * [|Room 613 Student Blogs] by Mr. Heatherington
 * [|Let's Talk eLearning] - a blog about implementing ICT in education, from Melbourne, Australia.
 * [|Thoughts on Teaching and Educational Technology] - a blog about both, from a high school teacher in Tucson, Arizona
 * [|A Really Different Place]--gifted 4-6
 * [|iSURFFers] - an elementary technology teacher's journey integrating web 2.0 tools (Teacher: JoNelle Gardner)
 * [|5B2008@MAS]
 * [|Classroom Blogs]
 * [|Mr. Boyer's 5th Grade Class Blog]

__Additional resources:__

 * [|Google Reader]- can be used as a reader and to find new blogs to read.
 * [|Technorati] - another popular blog search engine.
 * Google Blog Search []
 * Moving Forward Wiki > This is a place to list //**subject-specific**// ** P-12-oriented blogs that are worth sharing with others. **

__Further reading:__

 * Wikis and Blogs
 * [|Weblogs in Education with Will Richardson (movie)]
 * [|How-to Integrate Technology Articles] from //Teaching Today//
 * [|Why Blogging Benefits Schools] by John Collins
 * [|Ways to Use Weblogs in Education] by educator Anne Davis

__Tutorials:__

 * [|Blogging for Beginners]
 * [|Edublogs support videos] to help you get started
 * [|Blogger quick tour] covering blog basics and creating your first Blogger blog

[|Edmodo]
Edmodo is a free, private, microblogging platform delveloped for use in the classroom. Edmodo provides a way for teachers and students to share notes, links, and files. Teachers also have the ability to send, alerts, events, and assignments to students. Edmodo also has a public component built by allowing at the teachers discretion to post any item to a public timeline at the teacher’s discretion. You can set up groups and assign students to them. The posts can include links and files. The new verson 2.0 is faster and with it you can embed video.

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