High Tech Learning: Learning Spaces: Blogs: Blogging

Blogging

Blogs are web logs that arrange postings (i.e., text, graphics, audio, video entries) in reverse chronological order. Generally a single author or team of authors post messages and encourage people to add comments. Blogs are a one-to-many type of communication space. They're a great place to journal, log ideas, and gather reactions.

Explore a few examples:

Blogging has become popular in schools and libraries. Examine the following examples of school and library blogs:

A Really Different Place
Bobby Bucket Show! Bucket of Books! - a podcast for kids, parents, and readers of all ages
Conners Emerson School - notice their podcasts at the bottom of the right column under the current events
Grand View Library Blog
Mexico and Me 3 - produced by young people outside school setting
Room 208 - notice the student and teacher produced text, graphics, photos, videos, and audio.
Sandaig Primary Schools - examples of many different types of blogs.
UThink - Blogs at the Universities Libraries at the University of Minnesota
Willow Web - K-5

Read Blogging in the Classroom.

Read Where the Readers Are by Steven Bell in Library Journal (October 15, 2005). This article explore blogs in all library settings.

Read Blogmania by Eric Oatman in School Library Journal (August 1, 2005). This article explores blogs in school library media settings.

Read Blogging Module from EdTEchTalk.

Blogs in Collaborative Learning Environments

Keep in mind that blogs aren't just for standard computer systems. You can also blog from a handheld device. For instance, Splashblog can be used to upload photos and blog entries from a Tree smart cell phone. Check out my eduscapes splashblog that I used at conferences.

Image a virtual career day where people in a variety of careers share a day in their life using a Splashblog.

Blogs in Learning

Authors of all ages can share their reading and writing experiences using a blog.

Current Events. Newsletters, newspapers, magazines, and other current events type publications work well in the blogging format because they allow timely publication of information. Articles can be tagged, archived, and easily searched. An additional benefit is the ability of readers to interact with the article authors. Finally, since no paper is involved, it's virtually free.

Journals. The classic use of the blog format is journaling. In addition to personal journals, blogs can be used to chronicle of class activities. A series of science experiments, chapter by chapter book discussions, exploration of different types of poetry, and other ongoing activities are great for blogs. Also convert some of your older projects into the blog format. For example, the Flat Stanley projects are a natural for the blog format.

Think about how their journal could be turned into a blog for the Owney the Traveling Dog project.

Library Activities. Some blogs focus on resources and activities connected to the library. For example, at Washington Middle School students and teachers all contribute to The Library blog sharing resources, assignments, and news.

Reading Blogs. Look for blogs that are written by people with similar interests or background. For example, can you find other public library blogs or third grade blogs? Also look for blogs with very different perspectives from your own and consider their point of view.

Reviews. Whether reading the reviews (i.e., books, movies, games) or writing your own reviews, simple book review projects are a great way to get started with blogging.

Teacher Centered. While many blogs are student-focused, others are teacher directed. For example, a teacher might post lecture notes, practice activities, project guidelines, or home work assignments.

Visuals. From posters to scanned written work, visuals play a central role in some blogs. For example, in The Dream Factory Student Work the teacher scanned student work so the kindergarteners could shared their paper-based products.

Blogs and Blogging: A Homerun for Students, Teachers, and Technology. by Annette Lamb. This is an online workshop with a number of pages that all relate to blogging in teaching and learning. Be sure to work your way through these materials.

Read Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet's New Storytellers from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (PDF) (7/19/2006). This article provides recent data about the experiences of bloggers. It will give you a good overview from the perspective of blog creators.

Read The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom by David Huffaker in First Monday (Volume 9, Number 6, June 2004).

Read Blogging toward Literacy: Promoting Reading and Writing in English Classes (PDF) by Pamela Raytick. You can also try either blog (PDF).

Guidelines for Student Bloggers

A Comment on Comments from Gold Team Class Blog
Important Rules About Blogging from Grandview Library
Comment Rubric and Posting Rubric from Mr. Kraut
Class Blog Expectations by Mrs. Wood
Putting Pictures in Posts from Pacific MS Library BookBlog
Rules for Posting and Commenting from Room 613

Read Top 10 student blog posts. Examine the student postings. Are these exemplary examples? What kinds of activities would be useful in your interest area?

Creating and Using Blogs

One of the reasons blogging is so popular is because of it's simplicity. Here are the basic steps:

Creator. Create your content including text, visuals, audio, and video elements. Upload resources to a website or blogsite.

End User. View or download directly from a website. Or, subscribe to the RSS feed. Then, view or play on a computer or handheld device.

Go to edublogs and create a blog. Use the edublogs instructions sheet (Word version) or (PDF version) for the basics of creating your blog. Choose a theme for your blog. Will it be a personal blog or a professional blog? Who is the audience for your blog? How will you use the comment features of your blog? Will you invite guest authors such as student authors?

Read 123 Blogs by Travis Daily (a High Tech Learning student) to learn the basics of using Blogger.

Blog Tools

Although there are many blog tools for the general public, the following resources were designed specifically for librarians and educators.

Class Blogmeister (free) - best tool for class-based blogs with super class management tools
Edublogs
- Eduscapes Edublog
- Login at http://eduscapes.edublogs.org/wp-login.php
Uniblogs
Learnerblogs
ePALS SchoolBlog (subscription-based)
Gaggle Blogs (subscription-based)

Blog Examples

There are thousands of blogs being maintained by librarians and educators. Explore a sampling in your interest area.

Primary School (PreK-Grade 3)

Dream Factory Class News (1)
Duck Diaries (K) - focuses on a duck nest in the playground of their school; lots of student work
First Grade Huckleberry Room (1) - audiobook
First Grade Banyan Room (1) - audiobook
First Grade Maple Room (1) - audiobook
Mighty Writers (3) - be sure to read the student work
Mrs. Corron's First Grade (1)

Library Blogs

Library Zen Wiki - lists individual library blogs

Professional Blogs

Before jumping into the use of blogs with students, consider exploring professional blogs.

Read Looking at Liblogs: The Great Middle (PDF) by Walt Crawforld in Cities & Insights (August 2006).

General Blogs

Strange Maps - focuses on interesting maps

Blog Directories

Library Blogs
Education Blogs
- School Library Blogs
- Blog Tool Options - Education

Links to the materials in this section can be found in the navigation bar on the left side of this page. Continue to the Learning Spaces: Blogs: Audio Sharing page.

Learning Spaces: Blogs: Blogging