Blog

[|Kasey's Blog]

[|Blog Revolution: Expanding classroom horizons with Web logs] This article mentioned a couple different ways that web logs are being used in education such as readers guides and to communicate with students from other countries after reading a book about it. I thought this was a great idea! It also discussed the ways to use web logs safely for teaching and how they are making learning much more interactive.

[|Digital Discussion: Take Your Class to the Internet] I liked this article a lot. It gave five different options and examples of how to actually use a blog in different areas in your classroom. The article gave suggestions of how to grade the work and how to keep students identities safe when they are posting. The best part was that the article included a sample blogging lesson plan that can be followed.

[|Classroom Bloggin: Two Fundamental Approaches] This article was interesting to read because it had the debate between two approaches on how to use a blog and how to grade students on them. The first way is very institutionalized and extrinsic. Students were assigned and graded on the number of post and comments the put on the blog. The other way was through intrinsic motivation. This way students could post photos, sounds files and write to people about their interests. This gave them a sense of ownership of the blog and the students were peer and self evaluated. The author found the perfect combination...read it and find out what it is. :) Very good article of what works with students for blogging!

[|In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards] This article talked about how classrooms are using blogs as journals in class and it has really helped students who normally wouldn't open up to really come alive in class. It mentioned that teachers that used blogs found it easier for students to actually read and respond a lot quicker than having hard copies but were worried about grammar and spelling. Many stressed to students to write out their thoughts and then transfer it to the blog. It gave many examples of why teachers prefer blogging and I was surprised that some entries were from 2005-2006! I didn't even realize schools were using blogs in class four years ago!

[|Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom] This article was more of a brief overview of what blogging is. It talked about some areas of concern with blogging and benefits in the classroom and it mentioned five different ways to use blogging. It was a brief article; not one of my favorites. I would have like to have seen specific examples from teachers but it was a good article to read first.