Using Web Logs (Blogs) Using Web Logs (Blogs) In & Out of the ClassroomIn & Out of the Classroom

Kristin Furdak Discovery Education Field Manager kristin_furdak@discovery.com

Everyone has something to say

Blogs allow you and your students to be heard. Learn how to set up and use a blog to

encourage writing and reflection across the curriculum.

Find out what RSS is and how it may be used to manage your favorite blogs.

Explore various ways blogs are being used both in & out of the classroom.

Pew Internet & American Life Project

READ 25% of internet users say they read blogs. 36% of online younger adults have read blogs

compared to 18% of those who use the internet and are 50 and older.

Contribute

WRITE 9% of internet users say they have created

blogs 19% of online Americans ages 18-29 have

created blogs, compared to 5% of those 50 and older.

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/p/1083/pipcomments.asp

Consumers to Creators

The Internet is no longer a place to get information, it is now a place to give.

Share what you know, what you are interested in, and who you are.

No coding necessary. Free!

Make Connections

Quote others. Add to conversation. Connect with world.

Bloggers

Political Candidates Journalists Business leaders Techies Travelers Teenagers Educators Family Friends Everyone

Blogging is…

Web-based Personal publishing Self expression Amateur journalism Online community Customer relations strategy Email to everyone Reflection

Blogging is…

Modern diary Comment system – product testimonials Authoring Forum – Aspiring critic? Poet? Announcement System – groups, clubs, etc. Photo Album – PhotoBlogging An extension of yourself Ideal for collaborative, inquiry-based learning

Building Blocks of Blogs

Digital ContentTextPhotosSoundVideo

Reverse Chronological Order Archived Focus or Topic Comments

Archives

Comments

Subscribe

Links to Categories

Hyperlinks

Blog Title

Blog Subtitle

Date

Technorati – search engine that monitors blogs, tracks over 29 million sites.

According to Technorati data, there are about 70,000 new blogs a day.

Bloggers update their weblogs regularly; there are about 700,000 posts daily, or about 29,100 blog updates an hour.

http://www.technorati.com/about/

70,000 new blogs a day

Birth of Blogs

1999: Blogger & other simple tools available to public. 2001: Six Apart begins Moveable Type. 2002: Blogger & LiveJournal each have one million users. 2003: Google acquires Blogger. 2004: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declares "blog" as word of the

year. Political Conventions credential bloggers. Blogs become standard part of mainstream programs.

2005: The Electronic Frontier Foundation published the guide How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) 

http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php

Educational Applications

Blogs as: Record of learning and curriculumContinued Classroom Conversation

Teachers can:Record daily classroom lessons and activities Include links to Internet resourcesAsk students to respond

Advantages

Record of past lessons time & date stamped Students can catch-up if absent Writing is published to larger audience Serves as lesson planner Extension of activity Include others in conversation Better communication with parents

More Educational Applications

Students can blog a field trip or activity, recording day-by-day where they went, what they saw and what they learned - including photographs, audio, or video.

Collaborative feature allows all audiences to participate. Students can get feedback on work through comments. Blogs can be used by a wide range of educational

organizations.Keep teachers up-to-date Provide useful educational resources

Will Richardson, Teacher & Blogger

“ . . . We need to keep up with the way they use this technology because that is going to be their grammar: the way they communicate and construct meaning.”

http://weblogg-ed.com/

See Weblogs in Education video.http://www.weblogg-ed.com/weblogs_in_ed_video

Blog Examples

The Secret Life of Bees Reader’s Guide Blog From 2002 Created by Modern American Literature students

at Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Purpose is to provide an in-depth look at The

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and to create and encourage discussion about the book.

Author responded to students’ questions on blog.

http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/

Blog Examples

The Diary of Samuel Pepys A presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys,

the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, England.

A new entry written by Pepys will be published each day over the course of several years; 1 January 1660 was published on 1 January 2003.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/

Blog Examples

‘Best of the Education Blog’ Awards Presented by eSchool News and Discovery

Education. Four winners honored for excellence in education

blogging. http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/pdf/best_of_the_ed_blogs.pdf

More Weblogs

David Warlick’s Blogmeister

http://classblogmeister.com/ Tony Vincent - Learning in Hand

http://learninginhand.com/blog/index.html Discovery Educator Network

http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/ Teacher Leaders Network

http://www.teacherleaders.org/diaries.html English Cut

http://www.englishcut.com/

Getting Started

Think about…Your purpose (vision/mission)A creative name for your blogThe content you will shareYour audienceThe logistics of using a blog with studentsHow to maintain the blog

What You Need to Begin

Name Email Blog Title Choose a template Compose your first post

Tools of the Trade

LiveJournal Blogger edublogs

LiveJournal

Free! 9,707,283 journals and communities created

since 1999 294,756 posts in the last day Limit Your Audience - allows you to designate

individual posts or your entire blog as available only to those who have the password, or to people whom you've designated as friends.

http://www.livejournal.com/ https://www.livejournal.com/create.bml

Blogger

Free! Blogger was started by Pyra Labs, a small

company in San Francisco, in August of 1999. “Now we're a small (but slightly bigger than

before) team in Google focusing on helping people have their own voice on the web and organizing the world's information from the personal perspective. Which has pretty much always been our whole deal.”

http://www.blogger.com/start

edublogs

Free! For teachers, researchers, librarians and other

education professionals. Support handouts and videos available.

http://freidhof.fts.educ.msu.edu/Movies/Using_Edublogs/Using_Edublogs.html

http://www.edublogs.org/

Keep in Mind

Your voice Who you are blogging for Wider audience Personal information Once a post is out there-it’s out Date & time stamps Permission to publish from parents (AUP)

Benefits to Blogging

Increased writing proficiency Increased ability to think critically Information sharing Accumulate knowledge in one place Document with time & date Create a conversation Make connections

Blog Features

Preview post before appearing on web (drafts) Email notification of comments Comments can be deleted Comment options

Anyone? Registered user? Group members only?

Password protection

Considerations for Student Blogs

Use pen names (maintained with teacher list) No personal information

PersonalGeographicTeamAfter school info

Password protection is always an option How Can Children Stay Safe Using Blogs?

(article by Australian Government)http://www.netalert.net/01679-How-can-children-stay-safe-using-blogs.asp

This is a Test

The average American internet user is not sure what podcasting is, what an RSS feed does, or what the term “phishing” means.

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Data_Techterm_aware.pdf

How do I keep up?

Really Simple Syndication RSS aggregator

Gathers material from sites and blogs and brings new information to you.

“Subscribes” to RSS feeds from blogs, news sites & other content-rich sites

Provides most recent updates for sites to which you subscribe

Two Basic Parts to RSS

Newsreaders aggregate articles and blogs in one place using RSS.Feed = new contentAggregator = collector

http://bloglines.com/

See Bloglines Tutorial by Joe Friedhoff.http://freidhof.fts.educ.msu.edu/Movies/Using_Bloglines/

Using_Bloglines.html

Add Feeds

Subscribe

What’s Next?

Flickr.com – add photos to blogs

http://flickr.com/ Podcasts – online audio broadcast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting Vlogs or videoblogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog

Blogging & Hyperlinking

“Blogging is an amazing thing, a low barrier of entry to publishing that gives everyone a voice.”

“Hyperlinking is rooted not in technology but in our desire to make connections, learn, and share knowledge.”

-Biz Stone from Who Let The Blogs Out

Meet, Greet, & Share

Go make connections! In celebration of MACUL’s 30th. First 30 educators to return the handout with

signatures gets a flashdrive.

http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/michigan/ Subscribe to my blog by email.