Welcome to my blogging wiki page

Most of the material on this page is drawn from other sources on the web - teachers who have already used wikis and blogs in their classrooms successfully. A list of sources will be included at the end of this page.

Purpose: to introduce blogging as a vehicle to create original, assessible, web content in an educational setting for teaching, staff development, communication facilitation, collaboration, and technology integration

What is blogging?

The term "blog" means web log or online journal. It is a way of creating a website where the framework is already provided. All the user has to do is sign up, write content, let people in know about it so they can read and comment. This allows for a "conversation" rather than just a static page of information. Through another program called a "feedreader" people can subscribe to your blog or you can subscribe to others and receive notification whenever the blogs are updated or content is added.

• Blogging can be adapted to most grade levels and any subject.

• In our blogging class we will look at some feedreaders online to learn how to search for, subscribe to and read blogs.

• We will create a blog on Blogger to show the general process of how to set up a blog and use the blog as a place for feedback, questions, and links for reference.

• We will look at some examples of classroom blogs and discuss the importance of instructing and modeling safe procedures for blogs. We will discuss the importance of comments and look at some rubrics that can be modified.

How can blogging be useful in education for teachers?

Instructional tips for students, annotated links for students, exchange of lesson ideas and plans, handout: http://dmartin.pbwiki.com/f/teachblog.pdf

How can blogging be used in education for students?

e-portfolio, group discussion, course-based journals for assessment, instructor's administrative blog, handout: http://dmartin.pbwiki.com/f/studblog.pdf

How do I begin?

Link to "Blogger" tutorial - http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/ADC/workshops/_student_tutorials/_assignments/student_blog/index_new.htm#25

WordPress tutorial for Edublogs.org http://blogfolio.kboan.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/wordpress.pdf

http://sblogs.writingproject.org/gems/techinstitute/EdublogsA3WPManual053106.doc

What are some links to lesson plans using blogs and wikis?

http://adifference.blogspot.com/2006/04/wiki-solution-manuals.html

http://am40s.blogspot.com/2006/02/blogging-on-blogging.html

http://outsidethecave.blogspot.com/2005/05/responsible-blogging-lesson-plan.html

Show me some examples of blogging in education!

A Wiki of links to classroom blogs: http://del.icio.us/wfryer/classroomblogs

A superintendant : http://www.norcalblogs.com/edsuccess/

Math Class: http://am40s.blogspot.com/

Administrator: http://www.eduwonk.com/

Science: http://www.appliedscienceresearch.blogspot.com/

Technology Resource: http://landrumms.edublogs.org/

ABC Book of Blogging: http://www2.gsu.edu/~coeapd/abc/

Elementary Counselor: http://itc.blogs.com/counselorscorner/

Principal: http://itc.blogs.com/principalsquest/

Special Education Teacher: http://specialeducator.us/

Athletics: http://cgi2.westmont.edu/blogs/athletics/warriors/mens-baseball/

Some blogs you can subscribe to and get started reading!

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Delene

Show me some resources for creating blogs!

http://edublogs.org/

http://www.blogger.com/

http://learn2blog.21publish.com/

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

http://webloggedlinks.pbwiki.com/

http://www.think.com/en_us/

http://classblogmeister.com/

Show me some resources for reading blogs!

http://www.bloglines.com

http://feedreader.com/

Tutorial for Bloglines!

http://preetamrai.com/weblog/archives/2005/04/25/bloglines-how-to-keep-track-of-hundreds-of-blogs-and-some-news-and-some-podcasts-and-some-flickrs-photos-etc-etc/

Show me an example of a school blogging policy!

http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/default.asp

Tools for blogs!

http://blogtools.wetpaint.com/

What are comments and how can they be used?

Comment Starters: Written by Anne Davis

• This made me think about.......
• I wonder why.......
• Your writing made me form an opinion about.......
• This post is relevant because.......
• Your writing made me think that we should.......
• I wish I understood why.......
• This is important because.......
• Another thing to consider is.......
• I can relate to this.......
• This makes me think of.......
• I discovered.......
• I don't understand.......
• I was reminded that.......
• I found myself wondering.......

Ideas for assessment!

http://dmartin.pbwiki.com/f/Sample%20Rubric.pdf (credit to Kurtis Scaletta)

A possible suggestion is to create a spreadsheet and score blog entries according to your rubric as you read them.

Caution

Blogs are PUBLIC - anyone can read them including your present or future employers, coworkers, students, family, government. Using a pseudonym is not always enough - your writing can often give clues to your location and identity. Pictures can be googled and often easily identified. There is NO such thing as real privacy on the internet.

Information in blogs as in any other source needs to be corroborated - The very nature of posting in a semi-anonymous fashion means that anyone can post anything under a created persona. A good example can be found here: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/kaycee.html

Blog content is permanent - it does not go away. Other people can link to it, quote it (misquote it)and ten years from now will you want the content you wrote today to be read by your children or (see above list)

Blogs are addictive and time consuming - both reading and writing. The phrase "semantic connections" means one blog leads to another and so on and so on!

If you choose to set up a classroom blog keep focused on the results - Blog about your experience for others to learn. What worked, what didn't? What would you change if you did it again next year? What were the high and low points?

A list of links to sources for the information included in this wiki:

http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog

http://mentorsblog.blogspot.com/

http://adifference.blogspot.com/

http://anne.teachesme.com/