What Is A Blog?
A blog (web log) differs from a website as the content/posts are displayed by the latest date of contribution, allowing readers to follow (via visiting the blog or subscribing to email notifications of updatesl) the latest contributions made by the author and then post their own comments about any contribution. Twitter is considered to be a microblogging service as it is limited to 140 characters.
Watch the following video (opens in a new window) created by Common Craft to learn more about blogs.
Watch the following video (opens in a new window) created by Common Craft to learn more about blogs.
When used in educational settings, blogs are an effective way for students, teachers, parents and other family members to connect, collaboartve, share and access teaching and learning content online.
Pictured below is a screenshot of a classroom blog. Note that the speech balloons indicate the number of comments made by other students or further contributions made by the blog posts' author.
Pictured below is a screenshot of a classroom blog. Note that the speech balloons indicate the number of comments made by other students or further contributions made by the blog posts' author.
Student and School Blog Examples
To see how blogs encapsulate all of the areas discussed above and how they also act as promotion devices for schools, visit the exemplar school blogs listed below:
- A class blog: Mr Hladio's Language Arts 8
- Whole school blog: Calgary Science School (Canada)
- Class and individual blogs: Vallillo Graded (Brazil)
- Whole school, class and individual blogs: Martin J. Gottlieb Day School (USA)
- A group project by Year 5 students from Australia in the form of a blog: Grey Wolves.
Teddy Bears Around The World is a junior years blogging project, created by Silvia Rosenthal Tosilano, that originally started in one classroom and then spread into many schools and classrooms worldwide. It is a valuable resource that allows students to see each other’s countries, customs and traditions through the eyes of the teddy bears and open their horizons through a more global perspective.
Simply contact Teddy Bears Around The World with information about your school and teddy bear and to receive a username to participate on the blog.
Simply contact Teddy Bears Around The World with information about your school and teddy bear and to receive a username to participate on the blog.
To Blog or Not To Blog?
Image © Coxandforkum.com
There are many reasons for setting up a blog. They are ideal for use by schools, teachers and students as blogs can be used to:
- Increase student engagement in discussion and sharing of school work, both inside and outside of school hours.
- Train and promote eResponsibility and social networking behaviours.
- Instantaneously notify students, teachers, parents, and principals of student contributions, who can then access the work and then give feedback.
- Upload class work or homework.
- Replace traditional paper-based portfolios or PowerPoint based ePortfolios.
- Assist teachers and students alike in collating work samples for student-led conferences, as students can assign categories to their posts/content (e.g. "Student-led Conference Work").
- Promote schools via making school, class and individual blogs accessible to the general public.
- Embed live multi-modal objects such as Twitter feeds (via plugins).
In one of her many posts about blogs, 21st Century Curriculum Consultant Silvia Rosenthal discusses that blogs are also ideal avenues for:
- reading
- writing
- conversation
- communication
- collaboration
- presentation
- visual learning
- higher level thinking, and
- preparing students for 21st century learning.
What Is A Wiki?
Wikis allow all users to edit content and do not list contributions chronologically. Therefore wikis are better for collaboratively working on a group project as users can edit content. However, due to wiki users being able to edit content posted by anyone:
Wikis are now being used more commonly in primary and secondary school settings. Universities use wikis too but they are more often used to support students who are studying via online correspondence courses, as wikis can be used to promote collegial discussions and facilitate collaborative project work that may otherwise not be able to take place.
- Users must be careful not to delete or edit work or comments that others may prefer to be keep
- As wikis are able to be edited by multiple users, questions as to the validity of the information contained on a wiki do arise from time to time (e.g. inaccurate information being added to a Wikipedia page).
Wikis are now being used more commonly in primary and secondary school settings. Universities use wikis too but they are more often used to support students who are studying via online correspondence courses, as wikis can be used to promote collegial discussions and facilitate collaborative project work that may otherwise not be able to take place.
To Blog or Wiki?
As discussed above, blogs are great for showing a chronological record of students collaboratively brainstorm. For example, in a blog a student can pose a question to the teacher or other students, who can then respond to that questions. Responses to the question will be time stamped and listed chronologically. Only the owner of the blog can edit their blog's content.
On the other hand, wikis allow all users to edit content and do not list contributions chronologically. Therefore wikis are better for collaboratively working on a group project as users can edit content. However, due to wiki users being able to edit content posted by anyone:
View the wonderful video below to learn more about the pros and cons of blogs and wikis.
On the other hand, wikis allow all users to edit content and do not list contributions chronologically. Therefore wikis are better for collaboratively working on a group project as users can edit content. However, due to wiki users being able to edit content posted by anyone:
- Users must be careful not to delete or edit work or comments that others may prefer to be keep
- As wikis are able to be edited by multiple users, questions as to the validity of the information contained on a wiki do arise from time to time (e.g. inaccurate information being added to a Wikipedia page).
View the wonderful video below to learn more about the pros and cons of blogs and wikis.
Considerations
Regardless of whether schools or teachers choose to set up a blog or wiki, there are many considerations that must be made, including:
Who Will Be Blogging/Using The Wiki?
(i) One class?
(ii) The whole school?
Who Will Be Blogging/Using The Wiki?
(i) One class?
- Will that be allowed?
- Will other teachers or parents see the first staff member who sets up a blog as a leader, rebel or threat? ("If class x is blogging, why isn't my son or daughter's class?")
(ii) The whole school?
Paper Blogging Before Online Blogging
When teachers are preparing themselves and their students for blogging, some find it useful to first start by teaching "paper-based blogging".
Paper blogging can be a valuable step in teaching responsibility and digitial citizenship skills before letting children make comments onto the internet.
When paper blogging, students learn about the concept and skills of blogging via paper-based activities (pictured right). Click here to access and excellent resource created by a teacher on how to implement paper blogging in the classroom.
When teachers are preparing themselves and their students for blogging, some find it useful to first start by teaching "paper-based blogging".
Paper blogging can be a valuable step in teaching responsibility and digitial citizenship skills before letting children make comments onto the internet.
When paper blogging, students learn about the concept and skills of blogging via paper-based activities (pictured right). Click here to access and excellent resource created by a teacher on how to implement paper blogging in the classroom.
ICT Skills
Time
Before committing to setting up a blog/wiki, one must consider whether:
ICT coordinators and principals must also consider:
ICT Policies (click on the hyperlinks below to download ready-made examples)
As a matter of accountability and good practice, the principal must subscribe/be subscribed/invited to all classroom blogs/wikis (see this post).
- Do you or staff have the ICT skills needed to navigate and interface with the back-end/dashboard of even the easiest of blog/wiki websites?
- Do your students have the ICT skills needed?
Time
Before committing to setting up a blog/wiki, one must consider whether:
- Do they actually have the time to set up the blog/wiki? (5-10 hours)
- Do they have the time to create or source all information presentations that you will have to give to your class, teachers? (Click here to download a sample presentation)
- Can they allocate the time needed for your class to learn how to use the class blog/wiki effectively? (e.g. ICT and Literacy classes to teach blog navigation (front end and back-end), posting: social vs academic comments, social, moral & internet responsibility, monitoring and improving quality, enhancing comments through hyperlinked text)
ICT coordinators and principals must also consider:
- Can they allocate the time needed for other teachers to learn how to use their class blogs/wiki effectively? (Staff and PLT meetings)
- Has the school got the required policies in place (see below)?
ICT Policies (click on the hyperlinks below to download ready-made examples)
As a matter of accountability and good practice, the principal must subscribe/be subscribed/invited to all classroom blogs/wikis (see this post).
Before committing to blogging/using a wiki, schools must edit/create and ratify school ICT policies, including:
- Blogging/Wiki Social Media Policy (e.g rules and regulations for "acceptable" use)
- Media Release Consent/Permission to Publish Forms (most school Media Release Consent Forms do not address the move towards cloud-based storage and the sharing of digital content with a local/national/global audience)
- Copyright Policy: Teachers and students alike must be taught how to blog/wiki whilst respecting copyright laws (visit the 'Learning About & Respecting Copyright' section for all of your lesson needs).
Image © State of Queensland (Department of Education Training and Employment)
Blog Security Settings
As a matter of privacy and for student protection, all blogs/wikis should only contain two pieces of information that can be used to identify a student (i.e. school name or class name, student first name, but not a student image - an avatar can be used instead).
In consultation with parents, the principal and ICT coordinator, schools must decide:
In consultation with parents, the principal and ICT coordinator, schools must decide:
- Is it the preferred option to open the blog/wiki to viewing by the general public general public (i.e. a potential global audience)?
- Will the blog/wiki be password protected? (i.e. so only people given the password can access the blog/wiki)
- Can the blog/wiki password be given out to family and friends so they can view and subscribe to the blog/wiki?
Image © State of Queensland (Department of Education Training and Employment)
Providers
Many blog/wiki providers exist and choosing the right provider for your educational setting requires one to read many Terms and Services to ensure for the safety and retaining of ownership of student data and images.
Blog Providers
To assist schools in Victoria, Australia, The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) provide Victorian schools access to Global2. Containing many templates and a variety of security settings, education providers can readily set up a classroom Global2 blog and get students contributing and parents following within a matter of days. Click here to see an example of a classroom Global2 blog (password protected).
Many other free blog service providers exist, including:
Many blog/wiki providers exist and choosing the right provider for your educational setting requires one to read many Terms and Services to ensure for the safety and retaining of ownership of student data and images.
Blog Providers
To assist schools in Victoria, Australia, The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) provide Victorian schools access to Global2. Containing many templates and a variety of security settings, education providers can readily set up a classroom Global2 blog and get students contributing and parents following within a matter of days. Click here to see an example of a classroom Global2 blog (password protected).
Many other free blog service providers exist, including:
- Google Account: Users have access to eBlogger at 15GB of storage
- Weebly.com: Provides users with very user friendly, to have both a website and blog(s) but has a maximum file size of 10MB
- Glogster - Provides schools and students with a more glamourous blog (glog) full of visually appealing multi-media interfaces.
Wiki Providers
Many free wiki service providers exist, including:
Many free wiki service providers exist, including:
- Wikispaces: Wikispaces is the largest provider of free wiki spaces and offer teachers an upgrade to a pro account for free to enable them to set various security settings. Students can register to join a class wiki here
- PBWorks: Offers free wikis for academic use but requires a paid upgrade to set folder and page level permissions
- Wikia: Provides free wiki accounts but the wikis contain advertising pop-ups.
Build It And They Will Come (Or Will They?)
Before one goes to the effort of creating and maintaining a blog/wiki, other considerations must also be made:
- Will students and parents embrace using the blog/wiki or reject it? Once all policies are implemented, and the blog is set up, inform the parents about the benefits (click here to download a letters to parents regarding the blog launch) and get them onboard!
- Are your students ready/mature to handle the social networking implications that may arise from blogging/using a wiki? (e.g. social vs academic commenting, appropriate usernames, getting students to give blog/wiki feedback/comments to all students instead of only their 'friends)
- Does the school's student email policy allow for incoming emails from external sources? (e.g email notifications of contributions made to a blog/wiki and password reset emails)
- How will you ensure that the principal, staff, students and parents sign up to receive updates? Will you automatically add the email addresses of each to the subscribe feature or let them choose whether they subscribe themselves?
- Will students be able to blog on the run using their mobile phones or tablet devices by using apps such as Wordpress, Blogger or many more?
Embedding Social Networking Tools
Schools must consider permitting the embedding of social networking plugins to allow students to provide those who visit their blog or wiki the ability to "like", "tweet" or share their content via various other platforms, including LinkedIn and Google+. These plugins can be vital in promoting both student and school work to extend beyond the classroom and into their social network of family and friends.
The plugins can be inserted using the 'Embed Code' function available on the dashboard of most website providers. Click on the relevant social media entity to access a plugin's HTML code:
The plugins can be inserted using the 'Embed Code' function available on the dashboard of most website providers. Click on the relevant social media entity to access a plugin's HTML code:
Embedding Search and Navigation Features
If students or teachers are going to be using blogs or wikis, then visitors need to be able to quickly find the relevant content. There are four approaches to making blogs and wikis more search-friendly:
If students or teachers are going to be using blogs or wikis, then visitors need to be able to quickly find the relevant content. There are four approaches to making blogs and wikis more search-friendly:
- Posts made on blogs are automatically listed in reverse chronological order.
- Provide a website search engine (such as Google's Custom Search Engine).
- Provide search functions on each page (such as this free Javascript solution).
- Provide a site guide for easy navigation of a large website (e.g. see The Age's Site guide).
Exemplars of Educator Blogs (For Professional Reading)
Langwitches by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
One of the best blogs you will ever read and the inspiration behind the launch of this website. This blog has been running for five years.
The Innovative Educator by Lisa Nielsen, a US librarian / literacy coach / technology innovation manager / director of digital literacy and citizenship.
Mr G Online by Mark Gleeson
A blog by a teacher from Melbourne, Australia, who has been teaching for 26. The blog is jam packed full of ideas on integrating ICT into teaching and learning programs. This blog has been running for two years.
A blog by a teacher from Melbourne, Australia, who has been teaching for 26. The blog is jam packed full of ideas on integrating ICT into teaching and learning programs. This blog has been running for two years.
For A Better World by Gust Mees
A multicultural blog whose wonderful content can be used during Religion, Reading (whole class lessons: analysing values, attitudes and beliefs) or any Student Wellbeing lessons (i.e. You Can Do It, Circle Time, etc.)
A multicultural blog whose wonderful content can be used during Religion, Reading (whole class lessons: analysing values, attitudes and beliefs) or any Student Wellbeing lessons (i.e. You Can Do It, Circle Time, etc.)