EduBlog Insights

Then, there’s the element of anticipation and excitement. This can be exhillerating for both teachers and students. When I reflect on the NewsQuest project, one of the best parts of the day would be when the children came bouncing in from their classrooms. They absolutely could not wait to open their weblogs, and the very first item of business was to check and see who had made comments on their writing. On occasion one of them would have a response from an unknown source and much discussion would follow such as “Who is that?”, “How did they find us?”. “Wow, they like what I wrote.” Having an audience, and the possibility of such a large one, is one of the main attributes of weblogs that make them such a worthwhile technology to use with students. Some days my students would discover comments on something that they had written months earlier. This provided an excellent avenue for review and re-thinking about what they had previously written. The other key element is the ownership. It is empowering in a way that is hard to describe. This space belongs to them.

Rosanna is the author of one of the student blogs from Dr. Pullman’s class. 

She has many insightful posts.  Here’s a recent one. 

 I have enjoyed our ENGL 8900 Teaching with Technology class. I feel I have learned some valuable new information about technology, and I’ve gained some new techological skills. For instance, before entering this class, I had never heard of a blog. Now I seem to be coming across many mentions of blogs in the media, and not only do I know what they are talking about, thanks to Anne Davis and the ITC people at GSU, I have my very own blog, which I really enjoy. If I am so fortunate as to get an English teaching position this fall, I think my blog will be my first choice as a medium for communicating homework and curriculum to parents and students.

Suzanne, another student from the same class, shares her findings on ivy league blogs.
Michigan Virtual University’s on-line journal focuses this month’s issue almost entirely to blogging. The primary article takes a closer look at the impact blogging is having on Harvard University. Visit http://ts.msvu.org to read about the wide-range of blogging uses and experiences from a variety of members in the Harvard community.

Victoria is busy setting up her school weblog.

Wayne has posted some interviews on technology use in an Atlanta school.

I’m back from a nice, little vacation to Washington, DC.  I thought I’d show you the newly designed doors of the Department of Education. 

Researchbuzz always provides such interesting content.  They highlighted baseballblogs today. 

All research and no play makes everybody bored out of their eyeballs. So take the time to browse the baseball weblogs at .

There are several ways you can browse the content here. You can view a whole list of blogs. You can view all the ‘blogs in a big list. You can view by team. You can also view a random ‘blog if you want to read baseball but you just don’t know what you want to read about baseball.

Vacation calls!  I will be back next week!

Most Writing Scores Up  is an article about writing that caught my attention. 

The nation’s fourth-graders and eighth-graders have become better writers, but fewer 12th-grade students can convey well-organized ideas, a new national assessment shows.

I have been thinking about this article for the past week. While I certainly agree that it is the responsibility of every teacher to lead students in their struggle to become writers, that is just too simplistic of a statement to suit me. We know that, but we also know that in order to become good writers the time to practice and pursue that is critical.  The statement that some educators say writing has become the forgotten fundamental really hits home.  We all need to think about ways to make every teacher a writing teacher.  (Hey, how about weblogs?)

As I grapple with my thoughts about the process of writing, I keep coming back to giving students ownership as a key factor. I love to hear my students talk about what they do and don’t like about writing. I learned so much from the group I worked with this year. Listening to their insightful comments and watching them struggle through the hard process of writing a good piece is what teaching is all about. I like to think of writing as a tool for learning.

Usually good writing would come in our groups when we had lively discussions about things they cared about. That’s another key factor - writing about what is of interest to them. 

Weblogs are such a perfect place for students to reflect on their learning, discover gaps in their knowledge, and make connections between what they are learning and what they have learned. I’m working on a handout for using weblogs for “Writing to Learn” that I can use for future projects/workshops. I am going to focus on ways the weblog writing can be used to help in this whole writing process. This can range from quick writes to longer, more structured writing assignments. I think it might be helpful for those just beginning to discover weblogs to think about ways to use them with their students. 

Weblogs give ownership plus an audience.  That’s the third key factor - someone caring about what they write. They know their teacher cares but when other students and interested readers comment, you can feel the electricity in the air.  Students sit up and listen.  They are engaged.  You can see the wheels turning.  It’s a dynamic writing place where the writing is alive and inviting.  Your writing is out there and causes others to react.  Wow!  You just can’t get that kind of ownership so easily in the classroom. 

Yes, writing is fundamental!  In the hands of good teachers, weblogs can be the gateway for teachers to give students ownership, a forum to discuss issues they care about, and an arena that has an audience that cares about what they are writing.

Read this “via Corrante Tech News“….

Weblogs help create a political hot spot - ZDNet UK

A report out of Britain on a seminar for members of the House of Commons to teach them the whys and ways of blogging. More than 100 bloggers, politicians and journalists were expected to attend the “Can Weblogs change politics?” seminar, organized by VoxPolitics, which ZDNet describes as “an online think-tank dedicated to investigating the impact of new technology on politics.” Seminar organizer and VoxPolitics founder James

Crabtree: “This is the first time there has been a public debate about blogging in any national parliament and the first time there has been a publicly available Wi-Fi network in, as far as I know, in any national parliament, but certainly the first time in Westminster.”

A new guest blogger:  Howard Dean……

That’s the title of a post I just read on Lawrence Lessig’s weblog. What a concept ….having guest bloggers.  I like it, especially since the guest blogger is a former governor and a presidential candidate.  That makes it even more interesting for us.

The post has prompted 58 comments, so far.  I wonder if that is a record.

Lessig is going on vacation for a week.  He writes…..

This is, I believe, the first time a presidential candidate has been a guest blogger. But it is an obvious extension of blogs and the process of becoming President. Campaigns are all about meeting different groups and talking about ideas. Where better than a blog?

I have great respect for Governor Dean, and especially the clarity of his voice. I have even greater respect now that I see the doctor makes house calls. So Governor, welcome to this tiny server at Stanford: You¢â¡Áll find perfect acoustics provided by MovableType, and an interesting mix of views provided by the readers.

He adds one ground rule…..

One ground rule: I’ve had a policy of not editing comments of others, regardless of abusiveness. That is not my policy for my guests. You may disagree with the views you read here. But if you are reading them here, then you at least should respect the fact that they are being expressed here. It is important to me that blog-space everywhere become a place where more of this kind of conversation can occur. So trolls, please save your abuse for my return.

I look forward to this week’s readings.  Guest bloggers…. yet again, another interesting twist in the world of blogs. 

As I’ve said before…… blogs can be anything you want them to be, right?

Since my pictures are not working correctly on Manila right now I have been unable to post some pictures from the NECC conference.  Click here to view a few. 
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The Nuffield Foundation was searching for ways to support students taking chemistry courses and increase the participation level of online students.  theOTHERmedia suggested using a weblog.  It seems the students liked blogging, but the commenting feature was not used as much as they expected. However, the FAQ section of the blog proved to be quite successful.  The questions students asked were good and provided an avenue that kept bringing the students back for more.  They said the blog had evolved into a news delivering part of a FAQ site.

Thinking about FAQ as a part of a blog for students could be kind of neat.  I think they might ask questions there that they would not in front of their peers.  Definitely worth thinking about….