- Why did you choose the blogging platform you are using? I choose Edublogs for our class blogging platform for several reasons. First would definitely be the fact that everyone on Edublogs seems to be focused on education is some fashion. I wasn’t able to find any blogs on topics that were inappropriate for my students. Another great safety feature is that there are different levels of blogging. This gave my students the freedom to create their blogs yet I receive copies of all comments and posts. I also like the gmail shortcut in which I could use my own email address and add a “+#” to the end. That way none of my student’s email addresses were attached to their blog. Our technology coordinator also approved of the site and unblocked it for our freedom of use during school hours. Last but certainly not least, would be the fact that Edublogs has a tremendously helpful group of people: James, Dr. Mike, and Sue Waters. James and Dr. Mike answer all you technical issues and keep everything running smooth. Oh and fix thing that you mess up;) Sue is the Edublog educator geru! Her blog is filled with tips, tutorials, and tons of ideas! No matter which platform you choose, you will find Sue’s blog helpful.
- What have you found most easy or difficult in blogging with students? The two hardest things for me would be internet filtering and letting go of perfection. When we paired up with Ann’s class it took alittle over a week to get her blog unblocked. Then each one of the student blogs had to be individually unblocked (another week). We thought we were “good to go” until a student tried to post a comment and we found that all the comment pages for each student had to be unblocked:) The other difficulty for me was letting go of perfection. It was hard to have students post without me correcting their writing. But I wanted the post to be their writing NOT mine. So we stuck to the original plan: They write a post and have a peer check. If at anytime they have a question or want an opinion, they can ask me. Otherwise I just hold mini writing workshops at the beginning of “blogging time.” Their writing has improved tremendously over the last few months! Especially their attention to editing.
- What have you done to make sure your students are blogging safely? We have had several mini workshops on digital citizenship. Students have posted and commented on social and ethical technology issues. One great resource is iSafe. Students post first name last initial only. All accounts were created using teacher email. Copies of all posts and comments are sent to teacher.
- What do you think students get out of blogging? confidence, digital citizenship, global connection, writing ownership, education ownership, collaboration, …..
- How do you find ways for students to get their global audience? There are thousands of ways to get a global audience. I choose to stay more within an area I already knew, Sue Water’s Blog. She posted a list of classes wishing to connect. Another thing I feel helped grow our audience was getting involved with twitter. Several of my “twitter friends” have taken the time to stop by student blogs and comment. Check out our class ClusterMap of global visitors!
- What recommendations would you give to new teachers to blogging? 1) Get involved in blogging yourself. 2) Look at numerous teacher and student blogs for ideas. 3) Have a detailed plan. Here’s my class about blogging info. Ill be adding a page on this during the summer. 4) Get involved building your own PLN through twitter, nings, etc. 5) Start small
Category Archives: Connected Classrooms
Getting Connected!
Have you ever wondered what life was like outside of your hometown? None of my multimedia students have traveled outside of the US and most have travel experience limited to the southern states.
How can you travel the world in a US high school? One class at a time:)
During December, Sue Water’s wrote a post on connecting classrooms through Skype. I eagerly signed up even though I wasn’t sure if we could connect via Skype due to current blocking by smartfilter. I even purchased an iphone over the holidays to be used as an alternative. You can imagine my surprise after the holidays when I discovered that Twitter had been unblocked. I quickly contact one teacher I had corresponded with about the alternative to Skype. The celebration was short lived as Twitter only remained unblocked for about a week:)
Thank goodness I signed up for comment responses to be email to me! Ann Michaelsen contacted me January 21st through Sue’s original skype post. She had difficulty using Skype due to time differences. We both corresponded on various ideas. Ann’s students in Norway are working on English in Social Studies. They were ahead of us with blogging which served as great examples for my students.
All my multimedia students now have blogs and wrote their first post, welcome message, Monday. We are working on a photography unit, and the students are excited about adding some of their own photos to their hometown post. Ann’s students are also writing a hometown post this week.
Due to internet filtering, we are having difficulty correctly seeing Ann’s blog as well as her students. Our parish unblocked the site, but their is a hang-up with the theme or something. They are working on it, but it won’t slow us down. Starting today, my iphone will be used for students to post comments on the Norway students’ blogs. Many of my students have already stopped by this morning to show me the pictures they took to add to their own hometown post.
It is so exciting seeing the students really light up about this opportunity. I hope you will stop by to visit their newly created blogs. You can access them by following the tab, student blogs. Their hometown posts will vary according to their likes and hobbies. My students are showing our hometown “Through Their Eyes.” If it is someone that enjoys the outdoors, then you will probably learn about out trees, hunting, etc.
I am so excited to the world being opened to us through web 2.0:)
B3: Be Better Blogger
A new year’s resolution I can keep, B³ : Be a Better Blogger 🙂
While catching up on some of my rss reads, I happened across a post, Life is One Big Top Ten, on Sue Water’s TAFE site . In it she mentioned Steve Dembo’s 30 Days to Be a Better Blogger. Ok I must admit I am a total geek, but it runs in my genes. How many people have a 88 year old grandfather that blogs? I have been totally ecstatic that our parish finally opened up a blog site! I have been waiting for years to have an interactive site for my students.
Since the unblocking (November ’08) of Edublogs, I have been focused on the integration aspect of blogging:
- Organization of blog pages
- Steps for students to earn blogs
- Trial runs with students
- Finding great widgets
- Daily Journal dilemma (keep old, use edublogs, revamp)
- and so on..
I hadn’t really focused on how my blog looks to the rest of the world. My students love it, so it has to be great, right? LOL Ok, maybe not:)
I am officially making a New Year’s Resolution to complete Steve Dembo‘s 30 Days to Be a Better Blogger. Wow! a resolution I can actually keep:) I didn’t even take a sneak peak at what was going to happen over the next 30 days of this journey. I have already completed day one which involved revamping my about page.
UPDATE: Great suggestion @suewaters, I am going to also work through the original challenge, 31 day challenge. From what I can tell, it won’t be too time consuming to complete both. It is also broken into two categories, so challenges are different for beginners vs. intermediate. Pretty cool!