Complex Blogging

In his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson discusses the levels of blogging - from posting but not blogging to complex blogging. Richardson defines complex blogging as " extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period of time that builds on previous posts, links, and comments" (Richardson, 2009, 31). He distinctly define the posting of assignments, links, and journaling without analysis and synthesis as posting rather than true blogging (Richardson, 2009).

Getting elementary students to the point where they can post work that analyzes and synthesizes information will take modeling and scaffolding from the teacher. The teacher will need to provide the students with prompts and questions that promote critical thinking and go beyond the journaling or describing of events and material (Richardson, 2009).

I believe this is where the strict guidelines and expectations advocated by Rick Ferdig will become important. Students will need to know that you expect more than just journaling or summarizing. This can be expressed through the modeling of evaluating blog entries using a rubric that places value on analysis, synthesis, hyperlinks, discussion, and thoughtful arguments.

With well designed prompts and assignments that have clearly stated expectations and guidelines, I believe elementary students can create blogs that analyze and synthesize information over an extended period of time.

You can find more of Will Richardson's thoughts on his blog: Weblogg-ed. He also shares his thoughts and ideas on Twitter.

References:

Richardson, Will. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. California: Corwin Press.

Model Classroom Blogging

In an article for Learning and Leading with Technology Anne Davis discusses how teachers should first model blogging for their students before asking them to begin their own blogs. This can be done by creating a classroom or teacher blog. This is one suggestion that has been left out of many of the blogging in the classroom articles and resources I have found. Anne Davis suggests this as a first step to:

• Familiarize students with blogging
• Create an atmosphere where the student feels safe sharing and discussing their thoughts and ideas
• Provide students with examples of good blog entries and practices
• Start the discussion and lessons on blogging and internet safety

I think this is an important and valuable idea for incorporating blogging into the classroom. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, a classroom or teacher blog can serve as the hub for students blogs. Teachers can continue to use this blog throughout the year to communicate with the stakeholders in their classroom and provide prompts or other springboard entries for their students blogs.

At the end of the article she lists resources educators can access to find out more information about blogging in the classroom. The resource I found to be the most useful was one from a poster presentation Anne Davis and Ewa McGrail gave on the lessons learned from blogging in the elementary and university classroom. The presentation gives a list of blogs from elementary classrooms, both by teachers and students. I also found the information about how to start blogging in the classroom useful. She goes over safety issues and how to introduce blogs to students.

Anne Davis also keeps a blog that can be found here. She has written some interesting entries on blogging and pedagogy, such as this one. She has also given presentations and started a wiki on the subject of Blogs and Pedagogy.

References:

Davis, Anne. (2008). A vision for classroom blogging.(BLOGGERS Cafe). Learning and Leading with Technology, 17(1). Retrieved April 19, 2009 from Academic OneFile.

Davis, Anne and McGrail Ewa. (2007). Lessons learned from blogging with elementary and university students. Retrieved April 19, 2009 from http://neccposter2007.googlepages.com/home.

Reading and Writing with Blogs

"Perhaps that most significant instructional potential of blogs is student engagement." (Bull and Kajder, 2003, 35)

Glen Bull and Sarah Kajder wrote an article for Leading and Learning with Technology that explores how blogging can be used to scaffold struggling readers and writers. While the article is aimed towards blogging with struggling students, the benefits and activities discussed can be applied to any students in any classroom.

The article argues that by providing a multi-genre, multimedia workspace blogs can engage students in writing in ways that paper and pens cannot (Bull and Kajder, 2003). The article lists that following benefits of blogging:

• Economy - blog entries must be written well to be concise and readable by the viewer.
• Archiving - the archiving of the blog entries allows students and viewers to see the progression of thought and progress
• Feedback - viewers provide feedback for student work; the audience is authentic and, thus, motivates the students
• Multimedia - students can post various types of work to blogs - text, links, photos, digital stories, music, artwork - the possibilities are endless
• Immediacy - the publishing of the entry is immediate and the students see the outcome of their work
• Active Participation- not only is the student participating on their blog but they can also leave comments on their peers' blogs and participate in the larger blogging community (Bull and Kajder, 2003)

In addition to listing the benefits of blogging, the article goes on to discuss potential uses for blogs in the classroom. While it discuss many different activities that span many subjects, the activities that interested me the most were:

• Exploding Sentences - students revise sentences from previous posts (theirs and their classmates) and add rich descriptive words and details. I think this is a great writing activity that helps teach vocabulary and complex sentence structure.
• Literature Circle Discussions - takes the in class literature circle discussions and continues them in the blogsaphere. This activity would give students more time to discuss books and their characters. It would also allow for the potential for literature circle to span beyond the classroom to include multiple classes at multiple schools.
• Photoblogs - students writing captions for photographs. This would be a great way to incorporate art and photography in the language arts classroom. In addtion, it lets students practice summarizing and capturing thoughts into concise sentences.

While I though this article gave some great benefits and ideas for blogging in the classroom, I would have liked links to examples of the activities being used in the classroom. This would have given me a better idea of the acticity and a person to connect with to ask questions and find out more information on specific activities.

References:

Bull, G. and Kajder, S. (2003). Scaffolding for struggling students: Reading and writing with blogs. Leading and Learning with Technology, 31(2). Retrieved from http://itlab.coe.wayne.edu/jalshaibani/docs/reading%20writing%20blogs.pdf

Blogging Tips Video

Classroom Blogging

I recently found a blog called Blogging in the Classroom by Lorna Costantini. The blog focuses on using web 20 tools in the classroom. The website includes a nice page on Blogging for Beginners, that defines many of the key terms and provides links to other introduction to blogging resources. The website appears to be a nice place to look for resources for specific topics and ideas concerning blogging in the classroom, although the topics seem to range far beyond blogging to include many web 2.0 tools.

I will be adding this website to my bookmarks and hopefully will be able to use its resources in the future.

Blogging for Conversations

In an article titled Blogs are Not the Enemy, Jeff Utecht writes

"Blogs are not about writing, they are about a conversation." (2007, 7)

Blogs are not a new way to keep journals; they are a new way to have conversations about ideas, thoughts, reflections, and analysis (Utecht, 2007). Simple transferring current assignments and projects to a blog does not necessarily enhance or add value to the assignment. In order to take advantage of the benefits of blogs, teachers needs to give their students time to read, respond, and reflection on their blogs and their classmates' blogs (Utecht, 2007). The blogs needs to be brought back into the classroom through conversations and discussions - whether through comments online or class discussions.

I think this directly goes back to analyzing web 2.0 technologies and the two questions Judi Harris encourages educators to ask themselves before implementing new technologies into the classroom:

1. Does the tool enable us to do something we couldn't do before?
2. Does the tool enable us to do something we could do before, but better?

As educators we need to stop and think what the blog is allowing us to to that we couldn't do before or how it is enabling us to do it better.

References:

Harris, Judi. (1998). Harris, Judi. (1998). Wetware: Why Use Activities Structures. Retrieved March 5, 2009 from http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu/Foundation/wetware.html

Utecht, J. (2007, April 20). Blogs are not the enemy. Posted to www.techlearning.com

Sound Pedagogy & Blogging

I am going to narrow my focus a bit towards blogging in the classroom, as an example of web 2.0 tools, and good teaching practices. I think this will allow me to focus more in depth on one tool and explore its implementation in the classroom. I believe the things I learn through this will be transferable to other web 2.0 tools, such as podcasting, wikis, and whatever they come up with tomorrow.

Richard Ferdig, in an article for the British Journal of Educational Technology, argues good technological innovations from a pedagogy standpoint should:

1. contain authentic and challenging academic content
2. provide users with a sense of ownership
3. provide opportunities for active participation, interaction, and collaboration
4. create learning communities that allow for new teachers-student relationship, where the teacher moves to a supporting, guiding role
5. provide for the creation of an artifact that represents the learning
6. provide for publication of the artifact, reflection of the creator, and feedback from others (Ferdig, 2006)

I think that blogging in the classroom can meet all six of these pedagogy components.

1. While blogging does not inherently have authentic and challenging academic content, the assignment and blogger adds this component. The teacher, by assigning higher-order, engaging problems or discussion starters, drives the student to create authentic and challenging academic content.
2. A blog is a student's own personal space to work through their thoughts and ideas. They can choose the background, the colors, the fonts, the gadgets and customizable features to make their blog reflect who they are. They are also the main contributor to the blog, letting it take on content and a tone that reflects them as students.
3. Blog are a perfect venue for collaboration and interaction. By commenting on other blogs, they are interacting with their peers and those from around the world. Collaboration is possible through the sharing of information, linking, and comments.
   
4. A blog provides an opportunity for the teacher to step aside and let the student take control of the learning. By having their own space to share their thoughts and ideas, a student can control the direction of learning. It is a great way to differentiate learning; each student can explore the portions of the topic that interest them most.
5. The blog entries are the artifact; the entries are not restricted to text only - they can be videos, slide shows, pictures, text, graphics, or a combination of multimedia.
6. The blog entry is published on the blog. By publishing their work on the internet they are increasing the size of their audience compared to presenting their work to their teacher and classmates. Feedback can take the form of comments or responses to entries in other blogs.
   

References:

Ferdig, R.E. (2006). Assessing technologies for teaching and learning: Understanding the importance of technological-pedagogical content knowledge. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37(5), 749-760. Retrieved from the EBSCO Host database.