ltt » Blog Session

Exploring Blogs in Education

This Technolog-e Session will explore some options for creating Blogs in education, starting with;

What is a Blog?

From Wikipedia: A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are made and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs are used as online journals or personal online diaries. Most provide commentary or news on a particular subject. A typical blog consists of text, images, and links to other blogs (now called a 'Blogroll', web pages, and other media related the blog subject.

Blogs have become very popular because they give readers a chance to leave comments and interact with the blog author. You can now also subscribe to the blogs you like to read by using RSS feeds and an RSS aggregator.

Example Blogs in Education

There is a list of some Australian Educational Blogs on this Wiki, to which you can add yours once you have created one!

Here are a few more blogs with an educational focus:

This presentation from SlideShare looks at other uses and more online tools for educational purposes.

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Where can I get my own Blog?

Here is a list of sites that offer free blogs. Many offer different things and have different features, I will try to address these.

Blogger - a very popular option, somewhat limited as afar as adding extra bits & pieces
Wordpress - Free Blogs, highly configurable, you can add lots of gadgets and they have lots of themes available (if you are a web developer & require advanced modification options, Wordpress will install everything you need, to your own web space for free )
edublogs - offers blogs for educators, students, powered by WordPress but gives your URL an educational flavour. Recommended!

Here is a simple step-by-step guide to creating an edublog, created by John Pearce

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What tools can I add to my Blog?

Apart from adding text (diary/journal entries), you can add images & links. You can change the look by modifying your site theme/look and feel. you can add widgets, gadgets & gizmos. Here are a few examples;

RSS Feeds
Buttons
Flickr gallery
Del.icio.us Tags/Bookmarks
Google Ads
Google Maps

Check out these sites for more;

What can I do with my Blog?

Use it as a communication space for your students, get them to record their thoughts and feelings as they go through the course
Share what your class is doing with parents, industry and the community (Room132, LearningisMessy)
Enhance communication lines between yourself and parents, as well as provide resources to students that connect to the learning material
To provide media rich content for learning that students can comment on
Use blogs to cover content and class time for demonstrations, to go further with the content
Bring out the best in shy students
Use a blog during a class that focuses on points that students who want more depth on but which could be a distraction for whole class attention.
Give your faculty insight into what the students are all thinking

Already have a blog?

Have a look at some tips on improving, using and embedding it into your work here.

**Resources about Educational Uses of Blogs**

Philosophical question: Is this Web page a blog?
[Click here for more general introductory info about blogs and blogging.]
Check this great blog post out - http://web20intheclassroom.blogspot.com/2008/01/blogging-in-classroom-why-how-and-lots.html

List of Blogs on educational blogging

"Educational Blogging" by Stephen Downes
Lots of general background and intros to many tools available in 2004, with specific examples of higher ed use of blogs. E.g.,

"First, teachers use blogs to replace the standard class Web page. Instructors post class times and rules, assignment notifications, suggested readings, and exercises. ...

"Second, ...instructors begin to link to Internet items that relate to their course. and ..short essays directed specifically toward his students...not mere annotations of interesting links...

"Third, blogs are used to organize in-class discussions. ...students get to know each other better by visiting and reading blogs from other students. They discover, in a non-threatening way, their similarities and differences. The student who usually talks very loud in the classroom and the student who is very timid have the same writing space to voice their opinion...

"Fourth, some instructors are using blogs to organize class seminars and to provide summaries of readings...“group blogs”—that is, individual blogs authored by a group of people...

"Finally, fifth, students may be asked to write their own blogs as part of their course grade....students read a chunk of a book and post two paragraphs of their thoughts on the reading.

"The process of reading online, engaging a community, and reflecting it online is a process of bringing life into learning. "

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How not to use Blogs in Education?

"How NOT to use blogs in education" By James Farmer, in Blogsavvy, July 27th, 2005
<<http://blogsavvy.net/how-not-to-use-blogs-in-education>>

ACTIVITY: Create your first Blog...

Okay, it's time to bite the bullet and have a go. Get into Blogger, edublogs or Wordpress and have a go. There a worksheet & some ideas listed here.

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What should I include in my blog?

How about an "Acceptable Use policy" or "Blog Guidelines"? Collaborate with your colleagues and have a look on some of the classroom blogs featured above. You could even get the class to write one.

Try starting by writing something like:

Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for your blog and will not be tolerated. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of TAFE NSW.
Students who violate the agreements here shall forfeit their right to Internet access and will face other sanctions deemed appropriate.
Student blogs are to be a forum for student expression. However, they are first and foremost a tool for learning, and as such will sometimes be constrained by the various requirements and rules of teachers.
Students are welcome to post on any appropriate subject at any time, outside of their classroom requirements.
Never post personal information or details on the blog. Blogs are a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address.

Here are some other guidelines I've seen:

Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can and will come back to get you if you don’t.
Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably warn them by using a parenthetical note or some other word of caution.

Questions/ discussion...

How should I grade blog entries? Quality of entries? Number of posts? Appearance?
How can I monitor comments posted? (RSS comes with most blog themes and this allows you to view them easily)
Should we be getting permission from parents of young students? (How about an online form?)