blogs4l

= Use of blogs in education = toc Blogs (or web logs) are being used increasingly by our students and by many teachers There is a very interesting paper on blogging 'Mobile Blogging: A Guide for Educators', by Thomas Cochrane from Unitec: [] As blogging is used more and more by schools they now have to adapt their policies and user agreements to incorporate blogging. Tips from Netsafe (netsafe.org.nz):
 * Blogs are used by teachers to:**
 * replace the standard class Web page
 * link to Internet items that relate to their course
 * organise in-class discussions
 * organise class seminars and to provide summaries of readings.
 * have a sound reason for blogging. It should be based on sound educational reasoning, the benefits should outweigh the risks
 * ensure staff are competent. Teachers administering class blogs must be confident about doing it. They must also be confident enough to answer questions from parents
 * review policies and user agreements with staff and students. This should be done prior to starting blogs
 * check consent froms. Parents must be aware that students will be posting to the web and must give consent

Specific pedagogical potential of Blogs
An interactive model of the above diagram can be found on [] For intersting reading, click on the following link: []

Here are 33 ideas for using bloggs in the classroom
[]

Here's a survey about people who use bloggs in education presented in an interesting way. Its worth visiting the authors site to see the various ways that info can be downloaded as well. []

Uses within Education
Blogs can serve at least four basic functions. 1. Classroom Management Class blogs can serve as a portal to foster a community of learners. As they are easy to create and update efficiently, they can be used to inform students of class requirements, post handouts, notices, and homework assignments, or act as a question and answer board. 2. Collaboration Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to further develop writing or other skills with the advantage of an instant audience. Teachers can offer instructional tips, and students can practice and benefit from peer review. They also make online mentoring possible. For example, a class of older students can help a class of younger students develop more confidence in their writing skills. Students can also participate in cooperative learning activities that require them to relay research findings, ideas, or suggestions. 3. Discussions A class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Students have time to be reactive to one another and reflective. Teachers can also bring together a group of knowledgeable individuals for a given unit of study for students to network and conference with on a blog. 4. Student Portfolios Blogs present, organize, and protect student work as digital portfolios. As older entries are archived, developing skills and progress may be analyzed more conveniently. Additionally, as students realize their efforts will be published, they are typically more motivated to produce better writing. Teachers and peers may conference with a student individually on a developing work, and expert or peer mentoring advice can be easily kept for future reference.

Blogs are taking off and used more and more by individual teachers, the next link takes you to feedback and examples where it is used by schools and students: []

=Jo's thoughts on the use of blogs in education:=

I have chosen to look at the educational merits (or otherwise) of blogs, mainly because we have a very passionate class teacher at our school who does this very well. It is a sign of the times that I have just been discussing her class blog and how she uses it over a facebook chat, while investigating some other class blogs through Google! Class blogs appear to be the new, interactive version of the old class webpage. There are many advantages to having a class blog, and some disadvantages...

Advantages of class/school blogs:
As has already been discussed on this page, class blogs can be an excellent form of communication between students, teachers and parents. Students are able to use the blog during the class programme, and can access current assignments, links to research pages and other examples of work. When children are home sick, they can acess the day's/week's work and continue with it at home. An advantage of students posting their work to a blog is that the teacher can mark the work from anywhere, at any time.

An extension of the class blog could be the use of other Web 2.0 technologies that have been discussed. I imagine the teacher could include a link to a pre-prepared test on a test maker site, or to a wiki of interest etc. (Please correct me if I am wrong!)

The class blog is an effective way to communicate with parents and families. There is no chance of a notice not making home if parents are checking the blog each night! It can keep parents informed on upcoming events, currents assignments, homework and class happenings.

The class blog can also be an excellent way of showcasing the students' work to the community...and the world! Our school's blog contains written work, videos of children working, photos, podcasts and artwork.

The obvious advantage of a blog over a webpage is the ability of all users to be able to add/post work or mesaages to it, whether at school or home. This gives the ownership to the students and the teacher jointly; it also shares the resposibilty so that the teacher is not soley responsible for keeping it updated and interesting.

Disadvantages of class/school blogs:
The class blog at our school works well because we are a high decile school with mainly educated parents, and computers with broadband connections in homes. In some areas, while the school may be connected, homes may not. This raises the issue of equality; if some students can't access their class blog from home they are instantly disadvantaged.

Another serious issue is that of security. Once something is on a blog, anyone can access it. What are the implications of having images of young children on the worldwide web?

Many schools have blogs, but no policy around their use. What security measures need to be in place, who can add content, what are the consequences of posting inappropriate content etc...? These issues really should be discussed and agreed upon before the setup of a class blog, but more often than not they aren't.

Hilary's thoughts on these disadvantages - Jo is absolutley right - teaching in a lower socio economic area or having a variety of back grounds in the last grounds all our pie in the sky ideas of having an open classroom on the net. However the internet is becoming a basic human right and a lot of developed countries are trying to keep pace with this by offering free access at public libraries. It is pretty hard to get excluded from this ( though yes I have already thought of rural children ) and a lot of schools are also addressing this by having supervised access to computer suites at lunchtime. With regards to Internet safety this is considered actually better than at home where laptops are often no where near the eyes of parents -( the one downside to wireless internet ) Our school deals with a lot of 'cyber bullying' which is often a result of the children having not been educated on the possiblities of the internet - 'yes Timmy he can cut and paste your comments photo and no Timmy it was not a good idea to give your facebook password to your on again off again best friend.' If there is a danger to children such as alcohol, drugs and knives we try to educate as well as supervise ( if we just confiscated and banned food tech would be quite challenging ) how is the internet any different?

Examples of blogs in schools:
Below are links to the various blogs that are used in room 9 at Raumati Beach School. Jo, the teacher, uses these blogs as a way to keep in touch with absent children, to comminicate with parents, and to showcase her students' work.

[]

http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/NZ+classroom+student+blogs

[]  A really great wiki with links to lots of school blogs in NZ can be found at: http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/