Blogs+for+teaching+and+learning

** Why let our students blog?    **
This clip says it all in less than 2 minutes! media type="youtube" key="yKoEZJseVXU&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

Blogs allow students into the world of web publishing at anytime and almost from anywhere. Class discussions are not limitied to the physical classroom, they can continue outside of school. Many more reasons for using blogs in teaching and learning can be found at [|http://escrapbooking.com/blogging/tl.htm<span]

**
 * How can blogs be integrated into teaching and learning?

Blogs in the classroom
Weblogs are an excellent way to fuse educational technology and storytelling inside the classroom and beyond school walls. Because their format is similar to a personal diary, where recounting tales and autobiographical events is prevalent, blogs provide an arena where self–expression and creativity are encouraged. Its linkages to other bloggers establish the same peer–group relationships found in nonvirtual worlds. Its "underdetermined" design, where a system is engaging, yet intuitive and easy to learn (Cassell, 2002), makes it equitable for many age groups and both genders, and simple for teachers to implement. Being situated within the Internet allows bloggers to access their blogs anywhere and anytime an Internet connection is available, an opportunity for learning to continue outside the classroom. Blogs are both individualistic and collaborative. Blogs promote self–expression, a place where the author can develop highly personalized content. Yet blogs connect with an online community — bloggers can comment and give feedback to other bloggers, and they can link to fellow bloggers, creating an interwoven, dynamic organization. In the classroom, students can have a personal space to read and write alongside a communal one, where ideas are shared, questions are asked and answered, and social cohesion is developed. Blogs can be multidisciplinary. Because reading and writing can be used in a variety of academic contexts, blogs are fungible across disciplines. Storytelling should not be relegated to language arts alone — students can express their perceptions on any number of subjects. A science class, for instance, can give rise to an exchange of lessons learned after a scientific experiment. A discussion of fundamental concepts in mathematics could help students understand the logic behind the formula. Non–fictional stories can help students to situate themselves in a particular historical or humanities context. A global blog could truly introduce students to international culture or politics. In short, any discipline can use blogs to approach a style of //meta–learning,// where concepts or contexts are discussed and articulated in both a personalized and group exchange, and ideas are built on previous educational content.

[|Blogging in the classroom: Integration]



Why should I integrate blogging into my classroom?
Blogging is important in today’s classrooms! Blogging can be used to effectively teach:
 * Authentic Writing
 * Online safety
 * Digital citizenship
 * Media literacy
 * Reading comprehension and critical thinking skills

http://www.bloggingintheclassroom.com/

//"Weblogs are about reading and writing. Literacy is about reading and writing. Blogging equals literacy. How rarely does an aspect of how we live and work plug in so perfectly into how we teach and learn"// [|David Walick (2007)]

A paper by David Huffaker (The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom) explores the role of weblogs or "blogs" in classroom settings. Blogs, which resemble personal journals or diaries and provide an online venue where self–expression and creativity is encouraged and online communities are built, provide an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue. This paper explores the importance of literacy and storytelling in learning, and then juxtaposes these concepts with the features of blogs. The paper also reviews examples of blogs in practice. http://www.firstmonday.org/ISSUES/issue9_6/huffaker/

On her webspace ( [|https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/avee/blogstoteach/Blogging offers students a chance to a) reflect on what they are writing and thinking as they write and think it, b) carry on writing about a topic over a sustained period of time, maybe a lifetime, c) engage readers and audience in a sustained conversation that then leads to further writing and thinking and d) synthesize disparate learning experiences and understand their collective relationship and relevance. This just seems to me to be closer to the way we learn outside of school, and I see those things sorely lacking anywhere in traditional education.

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Setting up Blogs in the classroom
[|http://www.21classes.com/<span] allows teachers to set up and manage a multi-user blog with independent blogs for students.

Art Wolinsky advises teachers to follow these simple steps: 1. You publish and your students respond 2. Start a class blog where you are in control of student use 3. Allow students to create their own blog.

[|More advice from Art Wolinsky, from www.wiredsafety.org] //Includes useful advice on school policy etc//

Ideas for using blogs

 * Reflecting on day to day classroom activities
 * Literature Reviews

** Who is using blogs for teaching and learning? **

A range of blogs used in education can be found at this site [|http://escrapbooking.com/blogging/teaching.htm<span]

Examples of blogs in New Zealand classrooms
[|Years 1-8 Class Blogs at Nelson Central School] [|Year 2 class writing blog - Meadowbank School, Auckland] [|Year 5/6 blog on their adventures with new technologies - Pine Hill School, Dunedin] [|Year 5 blog about their experiences with podcasting - Pt England School, Auckland] [|Hills ICT Cluster - links to blogs from cluster schools] Includes theme based blogs, writing buddies, podcasts, even blogs to practise French! [|Education Gazette article on effective use of blogs at Manaia Kindergarten]

Inspirational blogs by New Zealand teachers
[|ICT U CAN - Jane Nichols] [|Chalkface 2.0 - Marnie Thomas] [|Educating the Dragon - Simon Evans] [|Further list of blogs by NZ Teachers]

[|Huge list of Blogs on Educational Blogging all over the world]

Using Audio Blogs - Podcasting
Podcasting can be used as a form of audio blogging. There are some great examples of how podcasting can be used in the classroom to enhance student learning. Of particular note; [|Dorothy Burt - Pt England School, Auckland] For her eFellows 2007 research, Dorothy Burt has been investigating how podcasting can be used as a teaching activity to contribute to reading outcomes of underachieving readers. [|Jane Nichols - Pine Hill School, Dunedin] Also for her eFellows research, Jane Nichols has been investigating the different ways and extent to which the use of podcasting enhances oral literacies in primary school students.

For more information about podcasting:
media type="youtube" key="y-MSL42NV3c&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

Using VoiceThread
[|VoiceThread site]

//"A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world."//

[|Example of VoiceThread use in the classroom] Created by Marnie Thomas, Auckland

VoiceThread for Education Wiki