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Blogs

Page history last edited by brunsell 12 years, 9 months ago

What is a blog?



Blogs are the epitome of “web 2.0.” It is probably easiest to see what blogs are by visiting a few. So, go ahead and browse. If you read a post and it interests you, please leave a comment.

 

This blog post provides a wealth of information on classroom blogs and blogging with students.  More classroom blog examples here.

Bloggers have a wide variety of reasons for why they write. Here are a few examples-

  • Eric Brunsell (www.ericbrunsell.com ) I blog for a few reasons. I like to write – especially informally. Writing helps me think publicly and flesh out ideas. Sometimes, a post can spark a good conversation and expand my ideas. I’m starting over with this blog (Education Ideation) as a way for me to record ideas, techniques, and tools for teaching. I’m hoping that it becomes a useful resource for my pre-service teacher. However, in the end it doesn’t matter if it finds an audience, the process is good for me.
  • Dale Basler (www.dalebasler.com) I blog in order to organize my life. To steal a metaphor from Cory Doctorow, writer and co-editor of Boing Boing, I look at a blog as my junk draw of ideas. Except my junk draw can be indexed and searched with ease. Nothing ever gets lost in the back. Another advantage is that this drawer of ideas is shared with anyone who want's to take a peak. Readers see my ideas and offer suggestions, share their experiences or use them to create something new.
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Start Blogging: Starting a blog is easy. Blogger and Posterous are two very easy to use free platforms (Blogger is more common and owned by Google, but Posterous is easier to use & you can post by sending a simple e-mail). After you create your blog, complete your "profile" as a way to introduce yourself. You DO NOT have to fill out all of the information in your profile - just share what you want!


Sharing your blog - Add your blog web address to the participants page.

Comments (9)

Bill Laufer said

at 9:05 am on Jun 17, 2010

A couple questions about blogs...
First: I can see some valid educational purposes for blogs but can't the same purposes be better met by using other social networking sites like facebook which the students are already familiar with and offer me better control of who has access to the information?
Second: My SD and all others that I know about have the websense or some other content filter that blocks all social networking sites. How can we overcome this institutional barrier to web 2.0?

brunsell said

at 1:46 pm on Jun 17, 2010

Bill - those are both great questions. I think the first question would be great as a way to end your reflective blog post -- Let's see if you can get others in the class to take a shot at answering. As for the second question, the exact mechanism will be different. Most either have a district blog platform that teachers can use or can (with some prodding) "open" specific web addresses. Websense and most other school filters allow the district admin to customize which addresses are blocked.

The districts that I have worked with in Wisconsin are usually pretty good about unblocking specific websites if requested by a teacher for academic reasons. Two districts in my area are in the process of relaxing their filtering software and giving teachers more freedom. One of these districts (with a very limited budget) is even installing wireless and encouraging students to bring personal Internet devices (iTouch, iPad, laptops, netbooks, etc) to school -- hopefully this is a trend. I would say that the majority of administrators that I talk to are in favor of promoting the use of web tools (as a pretty generic term), but are struggling with everyone else to determine how best to balance access and privacy.

Joy Mayer said

at 6:10 pm on Jun 17, 2010

I think blogs let you say more about topics rather than just commenting on what you are doing like Facebook. It is very hard to control Facebook since friends of friends can also read your posts.

My school is a private school that filters all blogs and social networking. I get access denied on many web searchs since they might have a blog associated with the site. If I wanted to use a blog with my students I would need to get permission to have my site allowed. I have hard time seeing them allow a social networking site like Facebook. The students would have to do it from home. Having a cell phone visible during the school day is also not allowed, so doing a project with cell phones would also take some work to be allowed. I think if a teacher provided evidence of how it was going to used and what the learning outcomes would be, then it would be okayed.

Nancy Bryant said

at 6:52 am on Jun 18, 2010

I wondered about using Facebook also, since it seems that most of my students are on it frequently during the time they are not in school. I have an account which I use to keep up with friends and family, but also I enjoy reading what my students are doing. Our school situation may be a little different from many high schools, in that most of my students have "friended" me. My policy is that I never "friend" a student - I don't want to leave anyone out. But if they want to "friend" me, then that is great. Anyway, I thought it would be great to use that avenue as a discussion board, like Bill says, because the students are on it anyway. I think it would work well for some situations, but I find that it is hard to retrieve posts once they move off the wall. I guess I feel that the organizational potential is not really what I am looking for, but I certainly could be uninformed, as I am not a Facebook pro by any means. I have seen students asking questions of other students - usually a last minute plea like, "Has anyone posted the history study guide? Please help." That's not exactly the type interaction I am seeking!

brunsell said

at 8:37 am on Jun 18, 2010

Facebook does have the option of creating "groups." If you were comfortable with it...and if your administration was comfortable...you could create a group for your class. The group page allows you to post links, discussions and other things. I used it for an early-career science teacher PD project -- it was OK. The problem is that the group updates do not appear in your update stream, so it is easy to forget to check. This wouldn't be a problem if you have specific tasks for students to accomplish.

I know that I would never mix my personal Facebook account (with my friends) with students. Personally, I would feel uncomfortable having that window into my students' lives -- at a minimum, make sure that you let all of your students know that if they "friend" you, you have a mandatory responsibility to report certain behaviors -- or you could be fired. (For example, if students post about a drinking party or other underage activities and you do not report it, you could get in trouble.)

Bill Laufer said

at 9:40 am on Jun 18, 2010

If I were to use FB I would make a new account that would be for professional purposes only and I would not accept friends. I would set up groups to post homework reminders links to tutorial sites and videos and a general place for student to discuss the class. I didn't realize that groups disn't show in the update stream so that greatly limits the usefulness. The problem I am trying to avoid is that if the information/site is on an island most students never utilize it and forget about it. So I guess FB doesn't solve this issue.

david buck said

at 12:28 pm on Jun 18, 2010

Bill, does your school block you from creating a Ning (it's your own private social network)? It would take some work, but I think you might find it workable. Ning.com.

brunsell said

at 1:30 pm on Jun 18, 2010

Ning is a great tool. If you check out They Synapse & Classroom 2.0 (linked in the Social Network section of this wiki), you can get a sense of what they can do. However, they did start charging. It is pretty reasonable, something like $2 per month.

Joy Mayer said

at 2:02 pm on Jul 22, 2010

The Endless Forms Most Beautiful blog has a new addess. It is http://access.aasd.k12.wi.us/wp/hoffmanelissa/

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