Edu Blogging


Let me Introduce you to Blogging

What are Blogs?  Well, if you are looking at this page, you reading one.  It isn't the most thought-provoking and reflective blog--an inherent quality of a well developed blog--,but it is a blog nonetheless.  Check out the Common Craft link on blogging to gain a little background.  Blogs in Plain English by Common Craft.

The Blog platform I'm promoting for teachers is Blogger from Google.  It is an easy one for teachers to navigate and post assignments, classroom news, problematic questions, learning resources, instructional videos, and so on.  The video below gives a brief look into the numbers of people blogging nowadays.



Blogs: Healthy Digital Literature

Blogs, short for Weblog, are collaborative in nature.  They are primarily text, but incorporate multiple forms of media.  More importantly blogs are linked to other related content on the Internet.  Hypermedia is a huge appeal for bloggers, and hypermedia can allow bloggers to:

  • Link to the inspiration behind writing topics
  • Link to related information online
  • Link to references
Teachers need to engage students, parents, community members, administrator, and colleagues in thoughtful, well-reasoned discussions.  Teachers, as bloggers, can connect their audience to learning resources.  They can use blogs and technology to empower students read and write using digital technologies.  Too often, students engage in the passive use of the web-based technologies

Educational Blogs to Become Familiar With 

Through this link you will find various blogs I found helpful for educators.   The list of links was compiled using the Social Bookmarking tool Diigo.  

Blogging Ideas for Teachers

By creating blog posts weekly, teachers should model the use of blogs to 
  • Communicate with students and parents after hours
  • Collaborate with students, parents, or other professionals
  • Remix content and share it with students, parents, staff, and other professionals
  • Connect with professionals around the world
  • Connect the classroom with classrooms around the world
  • Promote writing conventions in digital literacy to develop language skills 
  • Assess students reading, writing, thinking, and communicating
  • Post tasks to complete project-based learning tasks with students
  • Reflect and share practices with other professionals
    • Engage in Personal Learning Network (PLN)
    • Perfect the teaching craft
    • Share ideas for that work for teachers
  • Post assignments or questions for students to respond
  • Share learning theories
  • Provide instruction for extra assistance
  • Post writing prompts
  • Post inspiring daily assignments, which promote interactive web-based technologies
  • Write a description of a specific teaching unit or project
  • Provide tutorials on how-to use certain technologies at home
  • Showcase student work and class activities
  • Publish examples of good work
  • Post class photos of class activities
  • Provide teaching tips for parents or other professionals
  • Describe difficulties students are experiencing in class and suggestions for improvement
  • “Flip the Classroom”
    • Post content related to learning objectives
    • Post videos of direct instruction
    • Post calendars, assignments, syllabus, rules, etc.
    • Post various forms of media for students to preview
    • Create book clubs
    • Create literature circles
  • Connect with classrooms around the world (ePals)

Blogging Ideas for Students

With the truly public nature of blogging, students can use their blogs to:
  • Create an online portfolio for assignments 
    • Showcase products of Project-Based Learning
    • Showcase their best writing pieces
  • Comment on teacher’s posts or other media shared 
  • Collaborate and complete group assignments 
    • Provide different tasks to each group member
    • Provide links to each members blog as a bread crumb effect
  • Respond to writing prompts or thought-provoking questions
  • Curate and share a student-centered blog topic
  • Create personal journal posts
  • Write various genres and across the curriculum
  • Publish writing instantaneously for an audience of their peers
  • Improve their writing practices and to develop succinct writing for their audience
  • Evaluate and respond to other student work (peer review)
  • Engage in digital literacy and multimedia
  • Become aware of the word choice and conveying the exact meaning they intended
  • Promote meaningful discussions
  • Review their growth as a writer
  • Communicate with the class regardless of a tendency to be shy and reserved
  • Connect with other writers in a real-world platform for writing
  • Engage in higher level reflective, metacognitive writing
  • Complete a WebQuest (online and structured research)

Other Blogging Platforms

  • Wordpress- Professional looking blogs but some people find it difficult to use  
  • Tumblr- Well-designed blog sites and user-friendly
  • Weebly- 
  • Edublogs- Used by many educators and classrooms
  • Kidblog- Great for getting your entire class blogging

Additional Resources

But wait, there's more!  The following links are additional resources for getting started with blogging.

Conclusion


Be a leader of thought within your school and start blogging.  Choose a topic or multiple topics to write about online.  Involve students, parents, and colleagues in the process.  Blogs give a voice, platform, and audience to anyone with an ideas to share.  Overall, with a focus on instructional objectives, blogging in the classroom can foster creativity, collaboration, communication, connectivity, and critical thinking.  Think about creating your own and connect. 

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