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

1. Using Web Logs (Blogs) In & Out of the Classroom Kristin Furdak Discovery Education Field Manager kristin_furdak@discovery.com

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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!

6. Make Connections • Quote others. • Add to conversation. • Connect with world.

7. Bloggers • Political Candidates • Journalists • Business leaders • Techies • Travelers • Teenagers • Educators • Family • Friends • Everyone

8. Web-based Personal publishing Self expression Amateur journalism Online community Customer relations strategy Email to everyone Reflection Blogging is…

9. 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

10. Building Blocks of Blogs • Digital Content • Text • Photos • Sound • Video • Reverse Chronological Order • Archived • Focus or Topic • Comments

11. Blog Title Subscribe Date Blog Subtitle Hyperlinks Archives Links to Categories Comments

12. 70,000 new blogs a day • 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/

13. 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

14. Educational Applications • Blogs as: • Record of learning and curriculum • Continued Classroom Conversation • Teachers can: • Record daily classroom lessons and activities • Include links to Internet resources • Ask students to respond

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

19. 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/

20. 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/

21. 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

22. 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/

24. Getting Started • Think about… • Your purpose (vision/mission) • A creative name for your blog • The content you will share • Your audience • The logistics of using a blog with students • How to maintain the blog

25. What You Need to Begin • Name • Email • Blog Title • Choose a template • Compose your first post

26. Tools of the Trade • LiveJournal • Blogger • edublogs

28. 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

30. 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

32. 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/

33. 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)

34. 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

35. 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

36. Considerations for Student Blogs • Use pen names (maintained with teacher list) • No personal information • Personal • Geographic • Team • After 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. Two Basic Parts to RSS • Newsreaders aggregate articles and blogs in one place using RSS. • Feed = new content • Aggregator = collector http://bloglines.com/ • See Bloglines Tutorial by Joe Friedhoff. http://freidhof.fts.educ.msu.edu/Movies/Using_Bloglines/Using_Bloglines.html

40. Add Feeds

41. Subscribe

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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.