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I think it was in reference to my emails to you over the past few days. Did you get them? Anyway, copied below is what I sent you. Hope it helps.
Gordon

—–Original Message—–
From: Brune, Gordon
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:59 PM
To: ”Anne Davis ‘ ‘
Subject: RE: All about blogmeister

Oh, have them compose article in Word and then copy\paste to BM. And try to get them to copy the comment before submitting. For now, the spam code thing is not losing the comment if it’s keyed in wrong but for whatever reason it always seems to revert back to clearing the fields if it’s keyed wrong. That’s frustrating for kids and adults alike.

—–Original Message—–
From: Brune, Gordon
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:46 PM
To: ‘Anne Davis ‘
Subject: RE: All about blogmeister

Anne

Things look fine. I like the slideshow and the examples you found. I was going to suggestion Kathy Cassidy’s and Mark’s!

I’m not quite sure about your last question??

Anyway, I sent in two test comments and things seem OK.

When I have presented workshops using BlogMeister I, too, start right off treating the teachers as students and get them right to work “writing about the news.” (You know what I mean because I got the idea from you!) Writing about the news allows everyone to “sound off” about something and allows the reader to have something to respond to. I set the comments to no moderation for this first round just so they can see the comments appear right away. (And the “sending comment to teacher for approval” message is still hidden from even experienced users’ view and many wonder “what happened” to their comment” when the moderation controls are on.) For the truly inexperienced simply getting them to post and comment and see other comments coming in usually helps them see the power. Once their feet are wet then we discuss the rationale, the nuts & bolts, the management, the safety, etc.

I have also been surprised by the need to show some how to copy\paste their blog url into the url field so their name is hot linked at the end of the comment! Opening up two Internt windows, etc. This is what I do with the 5th graders the first session or so and I have to force myself to remember to do that with teachers. I then show them how to moderate because that is usually the first question.

I am always very honest about the time I take to moderate articles\comments. It’s usually 15-20 minutes each night. As you well know, I have no empirical evidence, but the kids are excited enough about publishing and getting comments so it keeps me going. Honestly, though, this fact turns off a lot of teachers. Not many follow up with it. BlogMeister does seem about the best fit for most teacher’s vision of things (students’ pages linked right off main page by default, moderation controls, little customization, etc.), so I think the time factor is what it really comes down to. I even stress the fact that I don’t do a lot of writing for the blog as a teacher (notice I have the same welcoming message all year!). I’d rather have the student’s work take front and center and have them do a lot of the leg work in posting, but still that 15-20 (30 minutes sometimes) sets many off. Maybe it’s because they need real evidence it’ll make a difference in order for them to make that time commitment?? Anyway, I know you know all about this. . . .

Another thing I am finding is that the students really gravitate to publishing to the blog and commenting to works that are off my “formal assignment” agenda. I have something I call “writing projects” that is in addition to the formal units of study we have to do. The writing projects are where the kids self-select topics to write about, revise, edit, & publish to the website. I don’t “cook” these too much. I eseentially publish them as quickly as they can come up with them. I think 10-11 year olds need to publish something quickly. These inevitably are the real wacky things you see posted: the quizzes, the baseball powerpoints, the scripts with accompanying video renditions, the insipid poems, etc., etc. (I recently read Ralph Fletcher’s “Boy Writer’s and that really has me going back and forth between honoring the 11 year old boy’s “Matrix Parody” type writings and reeling them in for inappropriateness. . . .)But this is the work the kids CHOOSE to skip recess to work on and post to the webpage. The other stuff (the writing about the news, the publishing of formal class assignments) gets their attention more than conventional methods, sure, but nothing like that element of choice. The technology aspect of it makes it even more so, I suspect, because they are publishing to a very real audience and that audience really reacts to it and comments to it. I think I would have a different tone if I didn’t have that aspect of my curriculum. Maybe not. . . .

The other two big points I make is the fact that I spend a lot of time trolling for an audience. I have found that class connections come and go so I introduce a new class every other week or so. I set my class a commenting’ to the class and inevitably the class comments back. Sometimes those connections turn into richer collaborations, sometimes they remain simple commenting connections, and some die out. But finding the audience is imperative. I quickly realized teachers, classmates, and even parents commenting did not motivate the students as much as a simple comment from a peer in Shanghai (or Georgia!).

The last unexpected revelation I have found with all of this is the professional collaborations I have made using BlogMeister. It’s one reason I don’t move to something else. True, BlogMeister has been buggy and not as robust as other tools out there (I wish for the simple image link to button and the link to url button!) but the esprit de corps that has arisen with the community of teachers discussing our issues through the yahoo group has really helped me stick it out. I suppose EduBlogs and other school based blogging systems have something similar but I’ve gotten to know BM, so. . . .I have only met one other teacher in my area face-to-face that uses blogs in the classroom. I still find that pretty remarkable. I now consider some of the fellow BM users close colleagues so I don’t get depressed anymore that I’m the only one wihin the area that I know of doing this.

Not sure if I gave you any nuts & blots suggestions?? I’d be happy to do a Skype call for you. I’ll pencil it in for the week of June 11th. You let me know the day & time. I could even get some of the kids to join me if you’d think that was worthwhile.

Gordon

—–Original Message—–
From: Brune, Gordon
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 9:32 AM
To: ‘Anne Davis ‘
Subject: RE: All about blogmeister

Anne

I’m honored and flattered that you ask! I regularly credit you and David Warlick so I will definitely check this out and give you feedback. I will take a close look tonight.

Gordon

By the way, when I do credit you (just last night matter of fact) I mention how the “writing about the news” blog you did awhile back (and David’s BlogMeister) pushed me into it. Why doesn’t that link to the “anvil” server ever work? I try to link to it when I mention it to people so they can see the process you took the kids through but. . . .I like the writing about your own process you did with that and how that really made it all so transparent.