Lessons Learned from Blogging with Elementary and University Students
Ewa McGrail and I did a poster session at NECC, “Lessons Learned from Blogging with Elementary and University Students”.
This is the research project we have been conducting all year. It was an overview of the project with a focus for this particular presentation on the relationships with the elementary and university students. We highlighted different aspects of the project. See “Lessons Learned” for our initial observations and thoughts as we have yet to dig through and analyze all the data from the year. Hey, I am still transcribing! Will that part ever end? 
I put together a slide show of the many participants who came by. We appreciate everyone coming by. The conversations were great!
July 6th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Great observations. I would echo them all. This past year my grade 1/2 classroom was paired with a university class of education students learning to teach writing to primary children. The university students were assigned to comment on each post that my students wrote. There were many wonderful exchanges as my students learned to “comment back” on their blogging buddies’ observations. It was fascinating-to-watch, authentic learning for both groups of students.
July 14th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Great list of “Lessons Learned.” I integrated blogs and blog comments into some of my writing assignments last year, and the student response was overwhelmingly positive.
This year I would be interested in collaborating with another teacher from another school in order to provide a greater range of comments from a more diverse audience.
Have you come across any networks that would facilitate such a pairing?
Thanks.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Anne, sorry to have taken so long to comment on this post. Lately it seems like my aggregator is groaning under the weight of unread posts.
Like Kathy, I too could mirror your observations.
If I had to pick one to move to the top of the list based on my own experience it would be:
#3: Teachers need to be willing to spend the time needed to prepare for blog related activities.
We’ve seen such a variety in blog posts among the hundreds of students blogging in both our Polar Science projects (www.polarscience.ca) and our current International Space Station Project, (iss07.yesican-science.ca). In classes where this is an independent project with little teacher involvement, a lot of students’ blogs lack focus, depth or true reflection. They are more on the level of IM-type communications. In classes where there is more blended learning, with students engaged in experimentation and discussion offline, there are more reflective-type communications. Students tend to ask questions and make observations that go beyond the superficial level. They build on each others questions and engage in thoughtful dialogue. We should never discount the role of teacher as facilitator.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:53 am
This is a follow up to Mr B-G’s comment as well as an introduction - a safe, social network aimed at school children was launched at the E2BN conference last week (see http://www.e2bn.org). The Learning Landscape for Schools provides safe place for pupils and teachers to use blogs and other web2.0 tools while offering the opportunity for a global audience and collaboration based on the Elgg platform (elgg.org). There is more information on the site.