- What is a blog?
- How to find blogs of interest
- How to subscribe to blogs with a feed aggregator
- How to use blogs in the classroom
- Planning for your classroom blog
- The basics of getting a blog started
What is a blog?
The word "blog" is short for web-log. A blog is an online journal of sorts. You can find blogs written on political opinion, blogs as an electronic bulletin board to keep a particular audience informed, blogs that chronicle an exciting life event such as a new baby, wedding plans or an illness...if you can think of a topic I'll bet there is a blog out there to cover it.
Finding blogs of interest
One of the best ways to prepare for creating your own blog is to acquaint yourself with what's already out there. Not only will this practice help you define your blog, it will also provide professional insight related to your field. There are many tools available to search for blogs. One way we searched for blogs during the workshop was using Google's blog search. Other sites out there: Technorati, Bloglines search, Clusty blog search, Blogpulse.
How to subscribe to blogs
So, you find a great blog and you want to keep up with new postings and comments. Instead of bookmarking that blog and going in to check it everyday, use a feed aggregator to subscribe to it so that the updates automatically come to you. Our group used Google Reader to practice subscribing. You will need to set-up a Google account to use Google Reader. You will be able to access an incredible number of other great applications from Google once you have this account. The only other feed aggregator I have tried is Bloglines. I was pleased with Bloglines but prefer Google Reader because I can add it as a component to my iGoogle homepage.
Once you are set-up with an aggregator it is simple to add blog subscriptions - just copy and paste the blog address into the subscription box on your aggregator.
Some services offer subscription bundles on particular topics or areas of interest. You can also create a feed on a topic you search in Google News. For instance, if you wanted any news updates on MySpace you would conduct a news search with the keyword "MySpace". When your search results are displayed, click on the "RSS" link on the left side of the screen. You will get a page full of code - do not be intimidated, simply look for the word "" and copy and paste the URL into your subscription box.
How to Use Blogs in the Classroom
Find a great classroom blog out there that mirrors your class - maybe students in Alaska are studying Egyptians the same time you are. Share their blog with your class and ask to be allowed to comment on what they are doing. At the same time share your class experiences with them. Sign-up for a "Recipe a Day" for your consumer science class. Keep your science students up-to-date on the most current news regarding global warming.
Planning for Your Classroom Blog
- Starting a classroom blog takes as much time in planning and preparation as it does in setting-up the blog and getting it going. The more time you spend planning = less time dealing with problems. My advice on getting started:
- Determine what you hope to accomplish with your blog.
- Define your blog - will be be just for one class? just for one school year?
- Write a mission statement and post it on the front page - make sure you share and discuss with your students
- Have guidelines (also see guidelines) in writing (created by your or by your class) and require students to sign a contract agreeing to those guidelines. Have students take the guidelines home and have them signed by parents as a permission slip - consider sending a letter of explanation home to parents.
- Familiarize yourself with safe Internet practices for students
- Determine how often you will post to your blog and make a "date" with yourself to do it and stick with it!
- How often do you want your students to contribute? Do you want to make it a class activity in the computer lab or allow them to do it on their own over a period of time?
- Who will be allowed to see your blog? Who will be allowed to comment? Will you moderate the comments?
- How will you grade student participation? What will be included in your rubric?
Getting Started
There are many free blog hosting sites available but for the classroom I prefer edublogs. Edublogs is free, easy, they offer tons of customer support and it was created especially for educators. Other sites include the one I'm using now - blogger, which is Google's blog service, and Classblogmeister.
For Further Study
There's plenty out there to read about blogging - thanks to Donna Goldsmith for the great links:
"Blogging Helps Encourage Teen Writing"
"Using Blogs to Enhance Middle School and High School Education"
"Rocking the Cyber Canoe: Blogging in English"
"Support Blogging.com"
"Back to School With the Class of Web 2.0"
"25 EduBlogs You Simply Don't Want to Miss!"
