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
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.
Instructional tips for students, annotated links for students, exchange of lesson ideas and plans, handout: http://dmartin.pbwiki.com/f/teachblog.pdf
e-portfolio, group discussion, course-based journals for assessment, instructor's administrative blog, handout: http://dmartin.pbwiki.com/f/studblog.pdf
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
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
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/
http://www.bloglines.com/public/Delene
http://learn2blog.21publish.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
http://webloggedlinks.pbwiki.com/
http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/default.asp
http://blogtools.wetpaint.com/
Comment Starters: Written by Anne Davis
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.
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?
http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog
http://mentorsblog.blogspot.com/
http://adifference.blogspot.com/