Blogging Session as presented at SCASL 2007
Outline of Powerpoint: Why Blog? Why Podcast? Why Not!
I am making this a seperate post for those who wish to place comments.
Blogging Guidelines and Resources Guidelines must be set by the teacher. Discussions (language and topics) should remain appropriate for an educational setting.
Wikie 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 created by Valerie Byrd Fort at Dutch Fork Elementary School. Cathy Nelson at Northside Elementary School even had the honor of several authors of books from the South Carolina Children’s Book Awards post to her school’s library 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.
March 10, 2007 @ 10:26 am
Mary – your session was wonderful! It was great to see you also. You are doing such cool things. I’ll send you a link when I set up my blog so you can comment, deal?? I am so inspired! Have a great rest of the school year. Take care!
Beth Hale
March 11, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Thanks to both of you for your presentation! Before this, I knew so little about blogging as an educational tool. Now I am ready to launch into the world of blogging and podcasting in order to encourage our students to write for an authentic audience.
March 11, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
Wow! What an inspiring and informative presentation. I have even gone on edublogs and started playing with a blog myself – need lots of practice before I try it at school to use for student book reviews. Thanks for all the useful information.
March 12, 2007 @ 4:28 am
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments! Please post the link to your blogs, if you would like. I would love to visit.
March 19, 2007 @ 9:33 am
Mary, After the conference I went back to school and set up my blog FINLEY READIN’ where students, teachers and I can post comments about books we are reading. I was inspired by your session and also Alan November’s keynote message. My next step is to get an iPOD and from there go to podcasting. Alan was so right about that is what the students are already doing and interested in.
Here is my blog address:http://craper.learnerblogs.org/2007/03/12/hello-world/. I am still learning but will bring students on board this week.
Carolyn Raper