Welcome back, campers! This week's exercise is an extension of our kickoff session - we are going to jazz up your blog. We also want to introduce you to other blog sites available to you. Blogger isn't your only option! We are using Blogger for Summer Camp because it's linked to our school Gmail accounts, but you may want to consider a different type of blog to use in the future. Check out some different options that are designed to be used by classroom teachers and students.
To Complete Activity 1: Blog Bling
Blogger:
Blogger is a Google product to which you and students will have quick access when you are logged in to your Gmail accounts. If you choose to use it in class, be sure to learn how to remove the "Next Blog" link at the top of the blog. It will send you or students to a random blog which may not be pretty.
KidBlog:
KidBlog.org is a site developed by a local teacher that has gained rave reviews among educators. With KidBlog, you can have much more control over the environment to which you expose your students. It's simple to use and best of all, it's free!
EduBlogs:
Edublogs.org is a nice blend between the beauty of Blogger and the safety of KidBlog. Check it out by watching this tutorial.
Weebly:
Weebly.com is one of many free website/blog creators on the web. You can use it to communicate with students and parents, host a blog, attach or embed videos and assignments, embed a class calendar or have your students create their own sites.
1. Last week we showed you how to follow our blog. Now, you should choose at least 5 of your fellow campers to follow as well. You'll also be responsible for commenting on 3 people's posts or products for each activity.
2. Change the layout of your blog. Add some gadgets, like Followers (as you can see, we added that to our blog to show all of your blogs!). Add 3 gadgets of your choosing.
3. In your blog post for the week, embed a video or photo. Search Youtube for a video you would use in your classroom. Embed the video and explain why it would be useful to you. (When you create your post, there are buttons to either link or embed a photo or a video as part of the menu). Here is a sample video about 21st Century Learners to get you thinking about the wide variety of Web 2.0 tools that are available and how your students may be using them already.
4. Reflect:
- How could a blog be useful in your classroom or professional life? If you're not sure of the potential benefits, do a Google search for something like "using blogs in the classroom".
- After checking out some of the other blogging sites, which do you think would be the best option for you?
I am working on how best to use a blog in my work with students and parents. My fear is to set up another vehicle for communication and that I will lose track of monitoring it. More disappointed parents I don't need.
ReplyDeleteHey Jon, I hear you. For years I intentionally stayed away from the wood lathe because I thought it would be too difficult to learn to use it well. Now it's the tool I use more than any other, in my teaching and for my own personal satisfaction. This bloggin' stuff, it's just one more tool for me to learn but like anything else, keeping a positive spin on it makes it easier for me.
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ReplyDeleteI think at this point I am leaning towards Weebly because that is where I created my classroom website. Blogger is convenient because it is connected to my email etc. Can Blogger be linked to Weebly?
ReplyDeleteI am excited about blogging next year. It will be a wonderful way to share what is going on in my classroom. Although, I am concerned that even if you have parents' permission, it may be dangerous to post pictures of students online. Anybody have any thoughts about that?
I have used blogs in my classroom for about 2 years now. I find that they can be hit or miss for many students. When a student uses them effectively, the kind of reflections you get are great and students demonstrate some real profound and insightful comments. On the other hand, many students treat them as a chore (I know shocking!) And in these cases, the blogs are a pain to read and do nothing really for students. Like many assignments, it often does not seem how much feedback is offered, some students just do the bare minimum, and for them it becomes a self-fulfilling process (ie. this is a tedious chore so I am going to make it such.) I have students post weekly blog reflections on the material and also on their grades. A lot of students do a great job of applying the material outside the course (I find this happens in electives more than required courses) and also analyzing what their grade is and why they have the grade they do. Then there are students who just repeat what we did in class and post their grade...they are the "on the other hand" students.
ReplyDeleteProfessionally, I have read amazing blogs that educators have kept where they post about technology, research, and general education material. Blogs are amazing for keeping up on educational material...yet they can be overwhelming just do to the sheer amount of them. I find it is best to pick three to five of them and stick with them. In fact, with all technology in the classroom I find this holds true to an even lesser degree of 1-3 things that work.
In regards to which blogging service to use in the classroom, in the case of students I find the simplest is the best. This is why I have used tumblr in the past, yet after last year (with some major tech issues happening) I think any of the ones discussed under activity 1 would be better. Each of them seem to have their shortcomings in comparison to tumblr, namely their formatting and the almost over abundance of options. Tumblr is nice because it only has a few options for postings and does not let students stray too far...it does not even provide the option of using html, which is great. Each of the videos presented formats similar to blogger, which is lots of options with many "holes" students can fall into. I do like the use of blogger, because it is already connected with student accounts. Additionally, it is completely free, as opposed to some sites which open up content only after paying. Honestly, they all look good. In my experience it does not matter what horse you bring to the race as long as you show students how to race the horse properly everything will be fine. The last thing you want to do to students is change the horse mid race to a chicken and ask students to keep racing...they always abandon the race as the chicken pecks at their faces. Giving students small baby step like activities to do, like this class, works well and no matter which one you pick they will end up being able to do the basics eventually.
Nice analogy. I needed the vision of a chicken pecking at my face to truly grasp your thoughts. Now I understand.
DeleteI agree with Mr. Melena. I am beginning to see how a blog may be a useful communication tool for parents IF they are all on board and it is the only place they need to go for information. At this point, however, I feel it would be just ONE MORE place that parents would need to go and this would be frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI do see how a blog could be useful for student discussions, thoughts, input, etc. The more kid friendly the better, like Weebly. I'm still unsure about how or if students should be evaluated for the work the do using a blog...at least at the elementary level.
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DeleteI also agree with the concern about offering a blog as another means for parents to receive communication (and not meeing their expectations, maintaining a website, etc.). I'm moving from first grade to third grade, so I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the capabilities and needs of a 9-year old.
ReplyDeleteI love the ease of imbedding a video, so students can easily watch something at school or at home with just one click.
I can see setting up pen pals with a blog with students in another classroom in another state or country.
I definitely want to use Weebly for my new website next year, and will spend some time checking out that blogsite as well as how easy it is to link blogspot to weebly or vice versa.
Fun stuff!!
I have used the blog format to post daily agendas and assignment for my students to access at any time, while at home or at school. This has been helpful when they are looking for information about homework or handouts that they can print at home. In the future, I would like to encourage my students to engage in a classroom blog, as well. Students would be able to post writing pieces or responses, both small and large, and their classmates could respond. This would promote literacy, let students show their personality and engage students in meaningful discussions with one another.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to use Weebly within my classroom because of the multiple things that you can post. I like the idea of the multiple formats that you can use, both website pages and a blog, to communicate with both students and parents. I also think it is very user friendly, it makes it easy to post different types of media.
I suggest Weebly if you are going to use blogging with students on an individual level. Weebly Pro (about $40/year) allows for individual student blogs that can be managed underneath the teacher/team account. These student blogs can be password protected, so that anyone wanting to view the blog would need a password to access it. This would prevent the general public from reading blog posts... which may or may not be the purpose of your blog.
ReplyDeleteJust a heads up to anyone in elementary school. This year, Blogger was NOT available to elementary aged kids. Not sure if it's going to change for 2013-2014. Many things are blocked at the elementary level that are open to older kids. You also have to periodically check things that are not gmail related as they get blocked by our Mounds View filter system as well. For awhile, Weebly was blocked and kids couldn't see their teacher's websites if they were trying to access them at school.
ReplyDeleteI have been using a blog in my classrooms for over 10 years and I've loved it. For those of you worried about what students might do, I have only once had to remove inappropriate material and discipline a student for his/her post. I teach Spanish and I use the blog at lower levels for students to practice writing,sharing their writing and getting feedback on topics we are learning in class. In my AP class I use the forum on Moddle for them to share reflections on the readings and listening activities they are doing. That class is a hybrid class so students are in class only two days a week so the weekly forum is an integral part of the class discussion.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to the whole topic of the class website which I would like some feedback on. I want everything to be on one site for a class, both for the sake of my students and my own sanity. For Spanish 1 this year I used a simple Google calendar linked to my website as the class website and it worked well for that level. No login required, open to students and parents, easy to update, etc. So if I chose blogger, that would work well.
For Spanish 2, I used Moodle with all of its advantages and disadvantages. Parents cannot access the website so that is a huge disadvantage. Even dealing with sophmores, I had issues with students forgetting their login, creating multiple logins and then forgetting which one they used for the blog, etc. Some students just never did the blog. But most used it appropriately and many students commented that posting on the blog and responding to their peers was one of their favorite homework assignments. It does take time to read them all when class sizes are large.
Of course I will use Moodle again for my hybrid class as it is mandated. As I said I keep everything on one page for my students so I will use the forum, wiki, chat, and glossary options of Moodle as the way for students to interact.
I am not teaching Spanish 1 next year, but my Spanish 2 students will be mostly freshman next year so I want the website to be super easy for them. No login for access, parent accessibility, lots of options for me, etc. The best website was one I paid for and used for years called myteacherpages.com. I don't know if they even exist anymore. That site was so easy. It did have a blog feature that was super easy for me and students. (The blog did require student login and approval from me to use although most of the rest of the website did not.) When the district set up its own websites for teachers, they told me I could no longer use the myteacherspages option. I needed to use the district website or Moodle. Now they have added Google pages as an option so I'm thinking of making my website for Spanish 2 a Google website for next year. Then I would probably use blogger for my blogs. As I said my experience has shown me that if students need to go to multiple sites and log in multiple times, they simply will not do it.
Of the options above, I liked Weebly the best. Of course as a foreign language teacher, I need to explore more and find out what the options are for using foreign characters. Again experience has shown me that if inserting foreing characters is a hassle for students, they will not do the assignments. So my questions are, will the district allow me to use a Weebly site for my Spanish 2 website next year? Has anyone done this? Is it easy to update on a daily basis?
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Laurita. None seem daunting to use but I am a toe dangler rather than diver and am not convinced that MORE technology on top of the students' constant nose-in-a-device lifestyle is what I want for my Spanish classes. I am, obviously, willing to learn but still unconvinced about blogging being better for what I am trying to get at than other tools. It is good to get some guided exploration opportunities though.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I teach TechEd I have been somewhat slow in incorporating techie tools into my classroom. I'm not a total dinosaur but I still feel that 'understanding' needs to come before knowing which buttons to push.
ReplyDeleteI haven't kept up a website or page consistently, probably because I didn't fully realize what it could do for me. Using this blog, looking at others available has been an eye opener. I don't think I'll become a blog fanatic right away but I've been able to see some ways that it will help me with communication, to the students, parents, and to administration.
I like ease and thought that KidBlog was the easiest to use from start to publish, with the least amount of unanswered questions. Nonetheless, at Highview we use Google Apps so introducing another tool for students to learn to use seems pointless to me. If students learn Google Apps well then making choices about all the other options available to them will come easier.