Blog If You Love
Learning:
Weblogs in Education
Lucy Gray & Judy Beaver
Apple Distinguished Educators
Thursday, January 17, 2008 1

Welcome
• Workshop wiki:
• http://lucygrayworkshops.wikispaces.com
• Workshop blog:
http://macworldedubloggers.blogspot.com/
• Post a brief intro on the workshop blog.
• Give your email address to Judy or Lucy.
Thursday, January 17, 2008 2

Workshop Overview
• •
Introductions Bling
• •
Blogging Basics Resources
• •
Following Blogs Creation
• •
Our Favorites Reflection
• •
Best Practices Evaluation
• Tools
Thursday, January 17, 2008 3

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
• Unbundled Education
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
• Unbundled Education
• Participatory Pedagogy
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
• Unbundled Education
• Participatory Pedagogy
• Personal Digital Media
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
• Unbundled Education
• Participatory Pedagogy
• Personal Digital Media
• Media-Savvy Youth
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
• Unbundled Education
• Participatory Pedagogy
• Personal Digital Media
• Media-Savvy Youth
• Technologies of
Cooperation
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

KWFDN:Trends, Hotspots, &
Dilemmas
• Gen Y Attributes
• Unbundled Education
• Participatory Pedagogy
• Personal Digital Media
• Media-Savvy Youth
• Technologies of
Cooperation
• Media Rich Pervasive
Thursday, January 17, 2008 4

Today’s Teen - Born 1990
Thursday, January 17, 2008 5

First Grade - 1996
Thursday, January 17, 2008 6

Fourth Grade - 1999
Thursday, January 17, 2008 7

Middle School 2001-2003
Thursday, January 17, 2008 8

High School - 2004
Thursday, January 17, 2008 9

Sophomore year - 2005
Thursday, January 17, 2008 10

Junior Year 2005-2006
Thursday, January 17, 2008 11

Senior Year - 2007
Thursday, January 17, 2008 12

According to Pew...
Thursday, January 17, 2008 13

According to Pew...
4 Key Teen Realities:
Thursday, January 17, 2008 13

According to Pew...
4 Key Teen Realities:
• Teens are technology-rich
and enveloped by a wired
world.
Thursday, January 17, 2008 13

According to Pew...
4 Key Teen Realities:
• Teens are technology-rich
and enveloped by a wired
world.
• Mobile gadgets allow them
to enjoy media and
communicate anywhere
Thursday, January 17, 2008 13

According to Pew...
•
4 Key Teen Realities: Teens know that ordinary
citizens can be publishers,
• movie makers, artists, song
Teens are technology-rich
creators, and story tellers
and enveloped by a wired
world.
• Mobile gadgets allow them
to enjoy media and
communicate anywhere
Thursday, January 17, 2008 13

According to Pew...
•
4 Key Teen Realities: Teens know that ordinary
citizens can be publishers,
• movie makers, artists, song
Teens are technology-rich
creators, and story tellers
and enveloped by a wired
world.
• Teens are multimedia multi-
• taskers.
Mobile gadgets allow them
to enjoy media and
communicate anywhere
Thursday, January 17, 2008 13

Margate Park
Thursday, January 17, 2008 14

Sam
Thursday, January 17, 2008 15

Presentation Zen
Thursday, January 17, 2008 16

My Blog
Thursday, January 17, 2008 17

Objectives
• Explore various blogging tools
• Investigate and critique the educational possibilities
• Help you get started with your own
Thursday, January 17, 2008 18

Blogging Basics
Thursday, January 17, 2008 19

What is a weblog?
• •
a simple way of publishing people can respond to
to the web entries
• •
requires little technical accessible; can make
expertise public or private
• •
can embed photos, video can be followed through
clips and links in a blog RSS feeds and a
newsreader
• posts are displayed in
reverse chronological
order
Thursday, January 17, 2008 20

Why?
• publish assignments
• ask questions and invite responses
• record lessons and ideas
• point colleagues to resources
• develop a personal learning network
Thursday, January 17, 2008 21

Where?
• School intranets
• World Wide Web
• Ning
Thursday, January 17, 2008 22

How?
• •
Free tools For purchase
• •
Blogger Typepad
• •
Blogmeister WordPress
• •
21Classes iWeb
Thursday, January 17, 2008 23

Blog Vocab
• RSS - “A technology that allows web users to receive (ongoing,
constantly updated) information collected from many sources
through a simple reader. This is supplied through an “RSS feed”
that users can subscribe to.
• Newsreader- a piece of software or web site that allows one to
aggregate, organize, and read RSS feeds.
• Tag - a label that can be applied to a blog post to categorize
posts and to make content available via search
Thursday, January 17, 2008 24

Following Blogs
Thursday, January 17, 2008 25

Google Reader
www.google.com/reader
http://lucygrayworkshops.wikispaces.com/
Macworld+Edublogs
Thursday, January 17, 2008 26

What’s RSS?
RSS in Plain English - Commoncraft
Thursday, January 17, 2008 27

Our Faves
Student
Teacher
Administrator
Class/Project-Based
Video
Professional Development
Thursday, January 17, 2008 28

Lucy’s Criteria
• •
Updated regularly Evidence of student
learning
• Not completely self-
•
promoting Compelling graphics
• •
Rich educational content Clean Design
• •
Thoughtful commentary Originality
• •
Creative projects References kids’ work
Thursday, January 17, 2008 29

Best Practices
Thursday, January 17, 2008 30

Tools
Thursday, January 17, 2008 31

Bling
Thursday, January 17, 2008 32

Resources
Thursday, January 17, 2008 33

Creation, Reflection
& Evaluation
Thursday, January 17, 2008 34

Contact Info
Lucy Gray
University of Chicago
Judy Beaver
Center for Urban School Improvement
Punahou School
elemenous@gmail.com
jbeaver@punahou.edu
iChat/AIM: elemenous
http://lucygray.org
Thursday, January 17, 2008 35

“... if we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our
children of tomorrow.”
-John Dewey
Thursday, January 17, 2008 36