Mary Haddon’s Life of Li(brary)

I was certainly surprised at the number of attendees to the session today since the guru himself, David Warlick, spoke yesterday of blogging and podcasting.

Thank you to Valerie, Brenda, and Mr. Lofton for adding their expertise to the session.  I think it went well, despite the projection screen mishaps!

Here is the information that was presented today.  Feel free to post your thoughts.  I will be adding to my blog things that I have learned in the two information rich days at EdTech 2006.

Blogging is a phenomenon that is fairly new to education.  Students as young as kindergarten can, and do, blog.  The great thing about blogging is that it can be powerful!

 A blog is a way that anyone can publish via the Internet.  What makes this different from a web page?  Well, a blog is more student-centered than a web page.  It is easier to maintain and update; you do not have to know web design.  And, because of the ease of use the possibilities are endless.  Research has shown that students write more and reflect more when blogging.  Students learn they are writing for an audience, the world, and they begin to worry about spelling and grammatical errors because the “world” will see it. 

Students can write, post pictures, provide links and make comments to each other.  It extends learning beyond the school walls and hours of operation.  It creates a community of learners through communication.

A wonderful term I recently heard was that students in this age and time are digital natives.  Marc Prensky, a nationally acclaimed leader and game designer for education and learning, reports that students are different.  They speak a new language, and just like all cultural groups, will not go back to the old ways.  Teachers must design Digital Native methodologies (Brenda Rowe, DFMS ePoetry Portfolios, see below) for all subjects and at all levels.  Prensky reports students’ brains are changed by the technology they interact with: television, gaming, Internet.   Setting up and maintaining class and student blogs surely fits with what the research is saying about brain development of students and how they now handle and process information. 

Blogging Guidelines and Resources Guidelines must be set by the teacher.  Discussions (language and topics) should remain appropriate for an educational setting. 

Examples of Many Types of Library Blogs: Schools, Public, Special, Academic, Associations, Directors of Libraries

Elementary Classroom and Library Media Center Blogs: Check out Bob Sprankle’s (Maine-3/4) blog with podcasting, WOW!  And another plogcasting [original term I coined] created by Valerie Byrd Fort at Dutch Fork Elementary School.  Cathy Nelson at Northside Elementary School even had the honor of several of the auhtors of books from the South Carolina Children’s Book Awards post to her school’s student blog! 

Middle School Classroom and Library Media Center Blogs: Mrs. Rowe, an ELA teacher at DFMS, incorporated “voice” lessons into the blog assignment that she and I collaborated on.  She discussed with the students audience before they posted to the blog.  Also, check out her student ePoetry Portfolios that can be posted to a blog.

This year the teachers at Dutch Fork Middle School are using Typepad to keep a class weblog.  Teachers are able to post assignments as well as documents.  What a wonderful way for parents to keep track of what is going on in the classroom.  Little to no miscommunication here!

High School Classroom and Library Media Center Blogs:  The Secret Life of Bees Literature Circle that involved responses from the author Sue Monk Kidd.  What an authentic learning experience for those students!

Security is an issue that is keeping some from exploring this avenue of communication.  Many educational blog sites offer passwords and/or a way to monitor comments before they are posted to the web, as well as language and content filters.

Sites to set-up a blog:

• November Learning Communities. http://nlcommunities.com/: subsciption; click here to get more information
• Think.com http://think.com 30-day trial; FREE; school must register; a blog within a class webpage; password protected; language filters; student email.
• Typepad: http://typepad.com 30-day trial; paid subscription; adminstrator can set up a template where all are uniform;
• Gaggle.net www.gaggle.net. FREE but schools must register, student blogs, language filters, student email.
• EduBlogs: http://www.edublogs.org/: FREE blogs for teachers, librarians, or any professional in education.
• Blog Meister http://epnweb.org/blogmeister/index.php?blog
• LearnerBlogs.  www.learnerblogs.org

Now that you know a little more about the world of blogging, you can create one!  Leave a link to your blog here.

Also, please leave a comment telling us what you thought of this session.