We-Blog, Tree-Blog

One tree yields about 9,000 sheets of paper. The best way to cut back on our paper use is to go digital. No other online writing tool diminishes our paper-dependency like the web-log or blog.

Join the blogosphere and save a tree.

This presentation will help you set up your own blog for pedagogical and/or professional purposes while saving a few trees in the process. We also will discuss such topics as networking, security and interactivity. Come learn all the benefits (ecological or otherwise) of the blog.

Feel free to check out the resources within the posts and listed along the left of this blog. A SlideShare version of my PowerPoint presentation is below.

We-Blog, Tree-Blog: Wincon09

View more presentations from comoprozac. (tags: blog wincon)

Reasons Not To Blog

As with most new approaches to teaching, there are a thousand reasons for not adopting them in the classroom. Blogging is no different. Whether it's a safety concern or and issue with time, teachers can find lots of reasons not to blog in their classroom.

I'd like to answer some of those concerns and to your reluctance.

Is blogging safe? How do I protect students from online predators?

Blogging, like almost any Web 2.0 tool does open you and your students to a whole world of influence, good and bad. But also like many 2.0 tools, blogging services offer a certain amount of personalized protections. Embedded within many blogs is the ability to limit who may post, comment about, or even view a blog. You can set up individual accounts so that students may post. You may want to create a special log-in so that parents can check daily happenings on the classroom blog. There are many options that blogging services provide that can help you protect your students from online predators.

Who has time for a blog? It's a lot of work.

Yes, blogging is time-consuming and takes a lot of work, but can't the same be said for almost anything worth doing? In essence, blogging is an interactive form of writing. We ask students to write all the time. We struggle to get them to write anything outside of (and sometimes within) a communication arts classroom. This is a great vehicle for student work to be published and commented on by their peers.

Our Internet service is spotty. How can I depend on a blog as a classroom tool?

This is a problem with any online tool, but a blog's unique nature allows for some back up. The easiest solution is to have students type their posts on word processing software to either copy & paste later or share in a network folder. Also, since it is an online tool, blogs can be accessed anywhere there's a computer and Internet access. Your more technologically advanced students can post from their phones.

The server at our school blocks blogs. If we can't access them, what good are they to us?

If you really want to blog and you can find a solid academic argument for allowing blogs, you should be able to talk your tech supervisor and/or administrator into lifting such a block. Use some of the teaching ideas we come up with in the session as examples of classroom application.

What if nobody reads my blog? What if they don't like it?

There are ways to get folks to read and participate on your blog. As the teacher, you can simply assign students to read, comment, and post on a classroom blog. Emailing the class blog's URL is an easy way to get parents and community members to read your blog.

However, if you want your peers to read your blog and to comment, you have to do several things. One way to promote your blog is to be a regular commenter on your favorite blogs. Of course, you should be sure to leave a link to your blog. Another good thing to get in the practice of doing is to link back to blog posts that inspire you or provide you some background for your own posts. While these practices are important to promoting your blog, the best thing you can do is to post every day. There isn't anything that turns off a potential reader more than a blog that hasn't been updated in months.

There will always be excuses not to blog, but hopefully my arguments above will help convince you otherwise.

What is a blog?

The word “blog” is short for “we-blog” which evolved from the “web-log”. Blogs are online journals that focus on single or multiple topics or themes where the writer, AKA the blogger, expresses opinions and ideas of a personal and/or public nature.

The idea of the blog was to create a website in which users could easily publish online content without having the technical know-how to write code. The content created took the forms of text, images, audio, and video. All of these tools have been used to cover anything from personal topics similar to those in diaries to more public fair like the content found in newspapers and magazines.

Where a blog differs from most forms of writing is that it is interactive with the readers participating in the discussion. Instead of the information only being passed from writer to reader, readers are able to comment and blog their own responses, linking their posts to other resources or blogs.

The popularity of the blog erupted in the past decade with the rise of citizen journalism. This grassroots form of reporting the news has allowed for additional perspectives not often given a voice in more traditional media. This expanded access to information and discussions has engaged the populace in ways that few media or writing has done before.

For a simpler explanation of blogs, check out this YouTube video, created by Common Craft.

Some questions to ponder…

What are some ways that blogs might expand student perspectives? How might a blog be as beneficial to the blogger as the blog reader?

How might blogs also improve teacher practices?

Some del.icio.us resources:
http://del.icio.us/zacearly/blogging101

Why Not Blog?

Blogs are everywhere and schools are not immune to their influence. Students and teachers alike are blogging about their favorite books, classroom discussions, and experiment results. The ongoing conversation of a blogging community helps further this knowledge beyond the walls of the classroom.

Teachers use blogs to both facilitate learning in their classroom communities and develop their professional knowledge base.

Blogs are one of the tools of Web 2.0 that easily applicable to the 21st century classroom. This tool can be utilized to keep a daily journal, track science experiments, keep a portfolio, or respond to writing prompts. Besides the endless possibilities of learning opportunities, blogs can make it easy for teachers to keep track of conversations, compositions, and content.

Several examples of excellent classroom blogs can be found here.

Teachers can even learn more about their profession through blogging. Imagine a staff room filled with thousands of educators…well…imagine those educators on their most inspired and intellectually stimulating day. Now imagine that you are in that room and the ideas are coming from all angles and bouncing from one teacher to the next. The possibilities for ways in which we can reach our students are endless. That’s what participating on the education blogosphere is like. It’s a community of learners from all over the world who are connected through the blog.

I have gathered several blogs with a focus on facilitating learning here.

Some questions to ponder…

What could be some possible projects for a class blog?

What are some ways a classroom blog might benefit the learning in your classroom?

What are some ways participation in a blogging community of educators might enhance your facilitation of learning?

How to Blog

The best part about blogging (and most elements of Web 2.0) is that anyone can do it. There are plenty of free services out there that make it easy to get started. Here are a few that I have used or have been recommended to me:

Blogger: Google owns this service. Like most Google products, Blogger is regularly updated with the latest features and provides great networking opportunities that other services can’t live up to. However, beware of the navigation bar and the infamous “next blog” button that can take the reader to any blog on Blogger’s network, even those which feature questionable material.

Edublogs: Edublogs is powered by the very popular WordPress, the publishing platform used by educators from kindergarten to graduate school. This service provides more safety and privacy settings that can help make your blog safe and useful.

Blogmeister: David Warlick and The Landmark Project offer this service for free to educators. All that you need is a school code and Blogmeister will happily welcome you to the family.

21Classes: 21Classes is provided by 21Publish, which in turn provides an easy way to set up a multi-user blog. Like Edublogs, 21Classes can offer a lot in the area of security and privacy.

My complete list of educationally friendly blogging services can be found here.

Once you have chosen a service, all that has to be done is to register and set up your blog. Typically, an email address is needed as well as some basic information in order to set up an account. After registering, you can set up the look of the blog as well as your permissions and privacy settings.

Now it’s time to blog! With most services, one has to simply click on an icon or text that reads “new post” and the writing may commence. Utilize all the tools offered to you while composing your posts. There are usually features that allow one to check spelling, change the font, and insert pictures or videos.

Once the post is complete, all a blogger has to do is click the “publish” button, but this is not where blogging ends. In order for a blog to expand knowledge and perspectives, it is important to read and respond to comments as well as to read and comment on other blogs. You know that the richness of a conversation will grow when bloggers even start to hyperlink back to one another’s posts.

Be sure to maintain your blog and add the blogs you like to read to your blogroll (a list of favorite blogs). Reading and commenting on others’ blogs also helps the conversation to go well beyond the original post.

Whether you already have a blog or have just established one today, I would like for everyone to post the URL to his or her blog in the comments of this post with a brief description of the content within. I’ll add these blogs to the blogroll at the left in order to keep our new community of bloggers connected beyond this conference.

For more resources on blogging basics, go here.

For more advanced blogging tools such as adding videos, incorporating graphic organizers, or using RSS feeds, click here.