EduBlog Insights

Remember the GSU instructor who was planning to teach weblogs? Nancy Schafer, the educational instructor for Early Ed, taught weblogs to half of her class while I taught the other half WebQuests. Next week we swap students and do it again.

She used tBlog - a quick, simple free webhosting site that I had shown her. She instructed her students to go to three different sites– tolerance.org,  the PBS site, and Marco Polo. Students were to select a topic, discuss it on their weblog, and then ask an engaging question. Then the students responded to each other on the comments section.  Good beginning, huh? Especially since they could complete the assignment within the two hour block.

Here’s one example:

I have been walking this “weblog” country for a couple of years. Jill’s post plus some of the reactions from the participants in the ESL/EFL online weblog session have got me thinking again about how to effectively teach weblogs. I’ve concluded that I don’t know the best way, and probably never will but I am going to keep on trying because I think it is heading us in a direction that is eventually going to make some needed changes in education.

Teaching about weblogs is so interesting and yes, so hard. It’s not a one shot thing. Seeds have to be planted and time provided for thinking about it. I’ve seen many educators who just can’t see possibilities with it. It is a little disconcerting at first. It is not a way that educators traditionally teach or communicate. Their immediate reaction seems to be one of trying to make it fit into something they already know. They want to convert it to a “regular” web page and don’t see how. Then they view it through one lens like a list of links, assignments, or random thoughts and they immediately toss it out as being of no value to what they do or want to do. Some equate it with teenage diaries and can’t get past that. Then some complain about the writing that their students do on the posts or comments. That is the one complaint that does bother me because that is where the role of a good teacher comes in- our golden opportunity to use it as a teaching tool. We have to be willing to take the time to make sure that weblogs are used to make authentic and exciting connections to what we are teaching. We have to get the kids excited, show them possibilities, and work at getting them excited about caring enough about what they write to produce a good product. That’s our job, our challenge, and our joy. It’s not a place to just turn them loose and expect good results. It takes hard work on a teacher’s part - teaching! It’s a place to oversee, guide, and help them see the value of writing. It’s working at giving them ownership but all the while raising the bar. Yes, student and teacher, working together to try to make it better.

Then there are others though who quietly observe what is going on by viewing other educational weblogs. They think about how they might apply it. They’re not sure just how to go about it but they are interested and they are thinking. They are not quite sure if they want to put their thoughts out there in this manner. It is a little scary. They are hesitant. They want to join in and their minds are open to possibilities. They need time and a mentor to be there to help and let them know that all of this is still a new animal in the field of education and we are all learning together. It’s OK; in fact I think it is good to take risks to make learning more exciting and relevant to today’s students. I also can’t help but think that as more and more of us are exploring weblogs in education, better and more effective ways of teaching about it will emerge.

Another group, although small, are those that just jump into the mix and get very excited about weblogs in education. They share their experiences and try to get others interested. They are risk takers and will charge forward into new areas and we will all learn from them.

I’m sure there are other groups. I think I fit into the second group when I first began. My first experience with weblogs was recording the journey of learning when I was teaching a group of fourth graders about palm pilots and how to use them in their learning in their reading classes. I had no idea about how to make it interactive but as I was logging the journey I was also busy searching the web for other examples. I was lucky to find some good examples, which I just continued to read and think about. They were my mentors. Then I just dove in and started blogging. Sometimes I am still startled that I writing my thoughts for any to see. I never imagined such a venture but it is great. It is hard work but the rewards are many - both with networking with other educators and especially the sharing of the learning with students!

One thing that weblogs do offer us is the perspective of many different voices and this is so needed for all of us educators. It’s our voices. That’s hard to get in another avenue. Plus these voices are unchecked. I may not like what some say. I may be exhilarated by what others say but I can take it all as more food for thought and keep on thinking about how to broaden the educational weblog community. I am going to try harder to get this important aspect across in my training sessions.

Having a door open to a greater community of learners is such a wonderful thing for educators. We can learn, we can grow, and we can listen to all these voices and emerge the better for it. So can our students.

 <via Kairosnews>

Dr. Jennifer Bay from Purdue is teaching an advanced professional writing course, English 515, where weblogs are definitely on the agenda! For starters, they read weblog articles and compile a brief list of characteristics about the weblogs . For the first five weeks of the semester, they will be studying the weblog as a new form of publishing.  Here’s the course description. See the weblog project assignment. They have to develop and maintain a weblog over the semester. It is a comprehensive workshop.  Writing and weblogs are front and center.  I’ll be following this class.

Ginger at Almost Audacious IT ran a blog workshop aimed at faculty recently, for which she produced the above hysterical graphic. Ginger says “I just swiped the graphic from the classic ‘The Blob’ movie and did some magic on it in Flash by tracing the bitmap. ” The ‘just’ sounds a bit modest to me - this perfectly captures the frenzied pitch that has accompanied a lot of the blog hype of late. - SWL

The page, Blogs in Education, that Ginger created for her faculty is great. The incredible graphic is there! Her content includes:

• options for instructors using blogs

• options for students using blogs in your courses

• articles about blogging

• sample blogs

• Blog writing tools

• aggregators

• tools for Advanced Blogging

It’s great to get all these different perspectives from the different people who are creating weblog workshops.  Thanks to Scott for the link and to Ginger for sharing her workshop!

Today I finally got some time to write a little more on the rationale for my Wrinkles group project.  I am excited about this project but feel lots of butterflies in my stomach.  I hope I am up to the awesome task of working with this neat little group. 

Lynne Jordan is the instructor in Early Childhood Education for our Literature Circles group.  Her post “I Think We’re On to Something!” is worth reading.  Here’s an excerpt:

“My goal is to have my students realize some of the possibilities of weblogging in their own classrooms.  I’m working now on ideas to make this type project manageable and worthwhile for classroom teachers.  I can certainly speak from my own experience with this first attempt at weblogging –my eyes have been opened in ways I didn’t anticipate.  It has, and continues to be, worth the time and effort!”

Today is the final training session for my Literature Circles group.  I met with half of the class this morning and will meet with the other half in about an hour. The groups switched times today so the group that came in the afternoon last week came in the morning today.  We reviewed last week’s lesson.  The students who had had the opportunity to read their books began to post.  I had handouts ready on the different reading roles.  We discussed these again, pointing out that based on their input we may change existing roles or add new ones.  They said that was very helpful to have to refer to as they were posting. 

Next, they created Navigation links.  Those are sooooo easy now!!  Thank you, Jake!  Students created links to each other’s sites.  They named their sites the name of the Newbery books they had chosen.  I explained pictures and stories although I am not sure that will use either of those features for this project.  I encouraged them to really think about weblog possibilities.  Sometimes this is hard when you are new to weblogs but if we get them thinking, I know these students will come up with good ideas.  I asked them to keep the students in mind as we were working on this project.  What do they think will work well, what will not?  I suggested they think ahead to when they would be student teaching.

It has been wonderful to have three sessions to teach this.  In the past, I have been lucky to get one hour and that just is not enough time to do it right. Thank you, Mrs. Jordan! All these students know they can come to me or email me with any questions, ideas, problems that occur. 

So we’re off and running!  Please feel free to comment to them.  You can link to their sites through the Literature Circles EduBlog.  One of them had a comment today from someone none of us knew.  They were so excited even though the comment was to use a larger font!  It’s interesting to see the reactions of all the different age groups to getting comments - it runs pretty much the same no matter what the age.  Doesn’t that show us the importance of feedback from an audience that cares?

Lynne Jordan and I will be continuing to post on the Literacy and Technology Teacher’s EduBlog.

This past Tuesday I met with my Literature Circles group.  This is the second time that I have met with them.  For the first class I met with the entire group and used my Weblog Workshop to provide a good overview and have them think about possibilities.  This group will be doing their student teaching in January so this is perfect timing for a class that will be out in the field soon. 

The plan is to learn how to transform a traditional genre to an online environment. Postings will focus on the Newbery Book Project which gives students the opportunity to participate in literature circles. If you want to know more about literature circles see literaturecircles.com.  Students will read and respond on their EduBlogs to selected Newbery books.  Entries will be dated and the department will note the reading role taken by the student. The students selected the following books:

Holes
A View from Saturday
The Giver
Missing May
Number the Stars
Bridge to Terabithia
A Wrinkle in Time
The Witch of Blackbird Pond 

There will be four or five students to each book EduBlog.  They will post comments to each other after postings have been made on the different reading roles.

So, for this training session we began the process of constructing the EduBlogs.  The group is large, 37 students, so I taught two sessions.  That was kind of interesting because I did not have complete groups (with the exception of one in the afternoon) in the separate sections.  I think it was a little clearer for the morning session as they had more hands on.  First, they posted comments on the Literacy & Technology Instructor’s EduBlog.  I was pleased with their responses.  They’re getting it!  Then we created a new site, filled in the About info, and selected a theme.  The two separate groups will have to vie for the theme.  That should be interesting to see who rises to the top as a negotiator or maybe it’s whoever is the loudest or has the strongest will.  Whatever, learning teamwork as we go.

Next we went into prefs and changed the title and tag line.  Then added a number for our news items (50 for now), and then created the departments.  Then since one student was doing the driving at the computer, others took over and typed in their email addresses in the managing editor slots.

Later, I just changed their sites from discussion to comments.  Next week we will go over the Navigation links, go over pictures and maybe stories and review what we learned.  Then we’ll be up and going.  We’re asking them to make a minimum of two entries on the EduBlog per week and two comments per week.  We hope they might do more.  We’ll see. 

Some had some really good thoughts when they were posting comments on our EduBlog.  I told them to save them and post those Learning Reflections on their own EduBlog.  We also have a department called Weblog Possibilities so we hope to get some good ideas there.

I’m also teaching this group how to create WebQuests.  They’ll do it on the book they have selected.  Whew!  A busy semester, but I am so excited about working with this group.  The instructor meets with me outside of class and I feel like we have set it up well.  Hey, please feel free to comment when we get up and going!  Suggestions are always welcomed!

Tonight is my night to work late so I have been busy trying to put together a simple workshop to convince the faculty here of the merits of having wireless laptops in their classrooms. 

I decided to put it together on a weblog so I could use it again, if needed.

Like I said, the night is late and I will look at this again tomorrow but if any of you have any suggestions or know of other sites or points I could make, please help!  I feel like I need something else to add some joy!

Also, I have been fighting with Manila tonight.  It is doing strange things like refusing to make small letters, adding bullets in strange spaces, and so forth.  Nothing like a good skirmish with Manila, huh?

 Laptop Workshop