EduBlog Insights

The Blooming Webloggers are official. See the post here about today’s session. There are links to the student blogs on that site. It was a great morning. Then this afternoon the 3rd grade teachers came for an inservice on weblogs. They were enthusiastic. A couple of these teachers had created Manila blogs last year but did not follow through on posting on them. They were excited about TypePad- said it was much easier. They liked not having to worry about design and setup. Just go in and post the content. See Rikard’s Weblog, Lane’s Weblog, McCullers’ Weblog, and Babin’s weblog. I can’t wait to see where this leads.
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Today I’m working on creating student blogs for my session with the J.H. House students in the morning. I am trying out TypePad as it seems like a model that may have advantages for elementary school although I miss many of the features Manila provides BUT the spam on Manila lately is a royal pain! I feel like it is merging through all the blogs I have. Some of the blogs are previous student blogs that I left open because from time to time I will get a very interesting comment from an interested educator or this one from Lucy’s blog:

Lucy’s post:

Hi Lucy,

            I was looking on the internet and I saw this website talking about T.J. Lathe. Well…. T.J. was my dad and i miss him a lot. What you wrote about him really makes me feel happy and very proud of you. My dad was a good man and he died in the mission field which was where his heart was at. This does not discourage me from going into the mission field now because I know it is what he would still be doing if he were alive. Thank you for your comments about him they really mean a lot to me.

                                         Sincerely,

                                                       Joel Lathe

I shared this comment and response recently with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. This reporter was really interested in the use of weblogs in schools and asked great questions. I thought the above post and comment showed how meaningful a comment can be to a student. Plus what a way to get your writing validated!

Comments are a crucial part of weblogs, and all this spam can really make it come to a halt in schools! Thanks to Will (via Betsy Devine), I can turn off Radio Hosting in Manila but I sure hope UserLand and other software companies can come up with a solution. Like Will says, it is not especially hard to delete comments but going to each comment is VERY time-consuming. Then to finish all that and have a fresh attack is really maddening. I find it strange that the spam is starting on my older blogs but seems to be making its way through and probably will get to my current one. Aaaaarrrrrrg!! A curse on these hateful spammers!

Making curriculum connections to current events is one of my favorite ways to use weblogs with students. Discussion of what’s gong on in the world promotes critical thinking and dialogue. We teachers need to foster the development of that voice. It’s the beginning of developing good citizens and brings the world right into our classrooms. Then, through weblogs, we can let kids see that they can make a difference with their writing.  

There are many good sites on the web now that can be used for springboards to let students view various sources, learn about different perspectives and see how their writing voices can be heard.

Here are some I have used and plan to use with my students (3rd, 4th & 5th grade) to promote discourse and thinking before blogging “on their own”.

• Global Gang

• Time for Kids

• KidsPost

• CNN Student News

• Science Daily

• Fact Monster From Information Please

• The Weekly Reader

• New York Times Learning Network: Student Connections

• Scholastic News 

• Yak’s Corner

• CBBC Newsround

• Kids Search Tools

I had jury duty today - did not get called to serve on a jury though. This makes about the sixth time I have been called - served on four. I still find the process fascinating.

Now what made today even better was that I got to participate in ‘Advance Voting”. It felt so good to cast my vote. I am ready for a change. Enough said on this blog! Most places around Georgia seemed to have a 2 hour wait to vote but I only had a thirty minute wait - not bad! Plus it was great to see so many people desiring to vote!! I know I will be in for a long night next Tuesday!

Now bloglines, furl, webnotes and all other great tools are making me feel less than organized. I have so many things saved to so many places that I’ve got to rethink this whole process. Technology is supposed to get me more organized but I feel on overload. I have so many good things saved that I forget what all I do have!! I have so many links of James Farmer’s saved. I need to quit saving and just start posting. Less is better, I’ve decided (as far as getting organized and making use of these great tools.)

James is really posting some good things lately, not the least of which is his providing free-for-teachers hosting, installation, support and consultation for weblogs, wikis, CMSs and more, Go to incsub.org and learn all about it!

He also points us to  Blogwise and Blogstreet. Take a look! There are so many relevant posts on his weblog.

On a personal note, I love his Advice post. I’m one American who appreciates his opinions and links to note, both personal and professional!

So now take my advice and check out his weblog - it is one of the best!

Unable to attend the Technology + Leadership + Learning Conference being held in Denver this year and sponsored by the National School Boards Association?  Don’t worry, you can log on to a weblog hosted by edweblogs.org and learn what’s going on. Edweblogs.org is a project of Clarity Innovations, Inc. What a great service from this dynamic company! I love that I can attend in this manner and learn from conference participants. It truly is the next best thing to actually being there. Weblogs work!  

eSchool News online published an article today, Ed tech: What do students want? They reminded us that students who want to speak out on the state of educational technology in our schools have until Nov. 12 to participate in Speak Up Day 2004. This is an online survey that gives our K-12 students a voice.

Excerpts from the article:

Approximately 40 percent of the questions on this year’s survey are new questions, Evans said. Topics will include timely inquiries into cyber-bullying, plagiarism, the educational value of video games, and what types of writing students do using technology.

NetDay also hopes to get a better sense for how schools are integrating technology into the curriculum. Questions such as “How do you use technology to help you learn about science?” and “When you are doing math homework, or assignments, which of these technologies are you most likely to use?” are meant to move the national conversation away from specific hardware and software applications to the value of technology in improving instruction.

The survey also gives students a chance to make suggestions for policy reform.

One open-ended question asks, “What is the one thing you would like to tell the next president about how you use technology for learning?”

I love that they are giving the students a voice but wouldn’t it be great if more students could have been introduced to weblogs as one of the ways to use technology in a most effective manner to integrate technology into the curriculum?

Get your students involved in this survey! The article links to some other articles relevant to the topic. eSchool News is a great site.

On another note, I’m really delighted to have the opportunity to post to the “Ed-Tech Insider” weblog that is sponsored by eSchool News. Clarity Innovations did the work and had the insight to pull it all together - great company!  Will, Tim, Tom, Steve, Tim W and some others are part of the group posting to the weblog - great company there, too! The RSS feed is located here.

I was reading this article, Stories of the past - a gift to the future, in the Christian Science Monitor this morning. The article is about a father who is writing his autobiography for his family. It won’t be bound in hard cover and probably only a handful of people, mostly relatives, will ever read it. The article went on to tell how personal historians can be hired by those who want to pen their life story. The price tag is steep though- from $5,000 to $40,000. Memories like this can be cherished and it made me think how everyone does indeed have a story to tell. It doesn’t have to cost a steep price and people can begin immediately. Let’s get people up and going on blogs.I thought about my mother who had started a blog, Vera’s Corner, that contained snippets of her past, her memories. I treasure it. I plan to have it bound in a book and how I wish she had started it earlier so more could be shared. OK, I’m on another mission. I am going to get some more of my family members blogging, as well as some close friends. The article ends with this compelling statement…. Perhaps we should all start writing. So, if you haven’t thought about it, get one of your family members going on a blog. We all know people who have much to share. What a gift not only to a family, but to others as well.  Care to join me on this mission?

ReadWriteThink is a terrific site to use in conjunction with weblogs. I’ve always thought that would be a great name for a weblog, but alas, it’s taken. The site offers a collection of tools under the Student Materials Index that support literacy learning. They are interactive tools and can be used by students prior to their “blogging” to learn. Lesson plans are provided for each tool which adds to the collection’s usefulness.

Eye on Idioms is a fun way to introduce students to idioms. Students go through a series of exercises, in which they view the literal representations of an idiom and then examine the metaphorical meanings.

Other online tools are Circle Plot Diagram, Comic Creator, Comparison and Contrast Guide, Graphic Map, Persuasion Map, ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool, Timeline, and Venn Diagram. Three Circles. The above list just names a few of the wide variety available. Go take a look and while you’re at it, browse through this Marco Polo site sponsored by the International Reading Association. It is top-notch.

Hillary, the instructional technology specialist from J. H. House is really blogging away on EduBlog Quest. I can’t wait to go to school tomorrow and tell her that her blog was “followed” in a class about blogs. Remember that first feeling when someone noticed something you wrote. I can’t wait to see her reaction.

Heather of Heather’s Blog is the one who noted Hillary’s blog. She has interesting posts about her own personal internet history, blog hopping, and her learning. Her professor asked her how much value she was finding in reading other people’s blogs. Her answer:

“So to answer that question more fully, I would say that finding blogs with subjects that I am interested in adds a lot of value to my experiences (and especially for the class he is teaching, since I am being introduced and using blogs and other online communication tools.) It is a great educational experience to read from bloggers who have been blogging for quite some time and are part of the culture of blogging. There is a lot of information that can be gleaned from others. Although some of the blogs I tracked for my assignment last week were not necessarily educational in nature, I have found that even just reading the blogs of my peers (well, I like to think they are my peers-most of them are PhD students, which is a level much higher than I am at right now) is educational and furthers my knowledge. I will never know it all, so what I can learn from others is always valuable to me (as long as they are credible). That is something you really have to watch out for. But in the end, you can always learn more from others. That’s one reason why I see blogs and other online communication such a great network of knowledge. It is amazing how far reaching it is. And, I’m sure I will have my eyes opened even more as the semester rolls on. I think I am only scratching the surface on all of this.”

Both these “new bloggers” are adding a lot to the conversation. I love following the learning and how it unfolds. We need to track these newcomers, encourage and support them, and learn from each other.

The climate we build around the use of weblogs in our classrooms is so very important. We have to create an atmosphere that promotes a give-and-take between student and teacher, student and student, and also a give-and-take between the student, teacher and those responding outside of the classroom. Students need to feel free to what what they’re really thinking. Then we can enter the process and counsel students how to write responsibly while maintaining their unique voice. I do think we have to be overseeing the process. I don’t view that as vetoing what they write. I view it as responsible teaching and a way to empower students to make their voice count. Now I’m coming from an elementary school perspective but I’ve worked with university students too and, in my opinion, they need the same kind of counseling. We really need to be providing every opportunity we can find for our kids to write. Weblogs give us a wonderful arena to build a community of learners, learners who write! Trust and respect have to be an integral part so that the students will really talk to us about their concerns. We in turn can give them a forum for those concerns but the whole process can be one of respect and honoring each others efforts. The part I like best abut weblogs is the dialogue that comes out of this unique learning community. We get the priviledge of encouraging our students. We get to believe in them and push them to their personal best. We provide a comfort level for them learning how to be risk takers, but we’ve right there with them. Teachers must nurture and build this kind of dialogue that hopefully leads students to want to learn to write effectively to exercise their voices and write. They do have voices that need to be heard. Our job is to show them numerous strategies and techniques to help them build voices that will make a difference.