BLOGGING AS TECHNOLOGY

Contents:

•Why blog?
•Blogs as learning technology
•Blogging Sites for Educators
•Step-by-Step Instructions
•References

Why Blog?

Blogging is a valuable tool, not only for students, but also for teachers and administrators in their efforts to make changes in education.

“Blogging has made it possible for all of us to be publishers and to elevate our voices to improve classroom practice.”(B. Ferriter, 2009)

“In every content area and grade level and in schools of varying sizes and from different geographic locations, educators are actively reflecting on instruction, challenging assumptions, questioning policies, offering advice, designing solutions, and learning together. And all this collective knowledge is readily available for free.”( Ferriter, B. Teaching with Blogs and Wikis Educational Leadership 66(5), 34-38.)

Blogs as Learning Technology
Blogging is a way to:

• Keep teachers current on methods and technology
• Help teachers collaborate with other professional educators
• Use feed readers to explore collections of student blogs
• Organize resources on topics connected to our curriculum
• Write a classroom blog reflecting on current events
• Have students challenge their digital peers and respond to challenges to their own electronic thinking

According to Peter Duffy and Axel Bruns (2006), Blogs:

• Help create connections that were previously very difficult or impossible
• Help to provide new channels of information and knowledge
• Promote the use of technology
• Promote writing habits
• Promote reading habits

Within a pedagogical perspective a blog can support:

• Comments based on literature readings and student responses
• A collaborative space for students to act as reviewers for course-related materials
• Images and reflections related to industry placement
• An online gallery space for review of works
• Writings, etc. in progress, making use especially of the commenting feature
• Teachers encouraging reactions, reflections and ideas by commenting on their students’ blogs
• Development of a student portfolio of work(Duffy, Peter, & Bruns 2006)

The Home Page at EduBlogs lists these ways to use blogs to teach how to:

1. Post materials and resources
2. Host online discussions
3. Create a class publication
4. Replace your newsletter
5. Get your students blogging
6. Share your lesson plans
7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions
8. Organize, organize, organize
9. Get feedback
10. Create a fully functional website
(http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/)

Blogging Sites for Educators

• www.blogger.com –free and provided by Google, only one username and password needed for all Google services

• www.edublogs.org – free and meant for educators

• www.typepad.com – not free but has good technical help and file storage (see video tour at http://www.typepad.com/pro/index-2.html)


STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR SETTING UP A BLOG:

• Paste in: http://www.blogger.com to your browser.
• If you don’t already have a Google account, create one.
• It will ask you to provide your email address and a password.
• You will need to go to your email account and wait (just a few minutes) for an account verification message.
• Once the confirmation arrives, read it and click on the link in the message. That will return you to the blogger website.
• It should have already signed in for you. If not, use your email address and the password you just set up to sign in.
• In the upper right-hand corner, you will see a blue link entitled “Create a Blog”. Click on that.
• You will need to select a name for your blog. This will be on your published blog, your dashboard, and in your profile
• Now you can choose a URL (Universal Resource Locator) for your blog
Sample: http://herdingmonkeys- teachingforlife.blogspot.com

There are two buttons beneath this section. The right-hand one (“Learn More”) tells you that the hyphen (-) is the only symbol that may be used in your URL (no underlines, spaces, or punctuation. The left-hand button (Check Availability) allows you to see if your URL has already been taken by someone else.
• Next you will need to type in the strange-looking letters that you see in the Word Verification box (Captcha). This tells Blogger that you aren’t a spam.
• Now you have created your own blog space. You will be given the choice of a theme, which means the layout and font. You can customize these later.
• Click on “Preview” below the box of a theme to see how it looks
• When you decide on one, fill in the circle below it with a dot by clicking it.
• Then click on “CONTINUE”
• There will be a small textbox for the title of your blog
• Below that, there is a larger textbox where you can type in your blog – with similar buttons to most word processing software.
• You will see a number of options around the page – experiment a bit to get comfortable.
• Type in a title and then whatever you want in the larger textbox then hit the button marked “Publish Post”
• Now you will see the message: “View Post”
• Click on that to see your completed post
• There are options along the top and side toolbars for moving between blogs, making a new post, customizing, and exiting

“Blogs and wikis are changing who we are as learners, preparing us for a future driven by peer production and networked learning.“ (B. Ferriter, 2009)

REFERENCES

Duffy, Peter and Bruns, Axel (2006) The Use of Blogs,Wikis and RSS in Education: A conversation of Possibilities. In Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, pages pp. 31-38, Brisbane.

Retrieved August 1, 2009 from http://eprints.qut.edu.au Ferriter, B. (2009).

”Ferriter, B. Teaching with Blogs and Wikis" Educational Leadership 66(5), 34-38.

Home Page of Edublogs, “10 Ways to use Your Edu-blogs to teach." http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/