Blogging/RSS in Education

Blogs in Education Instant Pubishing of Ideas For “Everyman” Ellen Robertson, facilitator HHH PDP

What’s a Blog? Yak Yak Yak and Yadayadayada ?

Originally were “web logs”

In simple sense, similar to online diary

Different from regular web page

Not static

Short--invite viewers to look at other resources

Updated often

Comprised of info, links, reflections, conversations (comments), photos, graphics, videos, rss feeds, podcast feeds

Engage readers with ideas, questions, links

What Are the Subjects of Blogs? “ there are blogs about dogs and frogs even people who wear clogs there are flying blogs and frying blogs, crying blogs and dying blogs You get the idea….blogs are hot!” ~Will Richardson Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Most Read Blogs: http://www. bloglines . com/topblogs

What’s a Blog?

Educational blogs geared to teachers:

Links to ideas, other educational sites, lesson plans, conferences, pedagogy, philosophies, other ed blogs

Space for responses:

For collaboration

Exchange of ideas

50 million blogs tracked in July 2006 100X 3 years ago

Blogs Geared to Educators to Explore

A blog by a teacher discussing a wikispaces project

A blog by Web 2.0 guru Will Richardson http: //weblogg-ed .com/

Blogs Geared to Educators to Explore

Take a look at these blogs by different types of educators: edublog Award winners http://www. incsub .org/awards/ http://www.teachers.answers. com/main/teachers_weblogs .jsp Google blog searcher: http://search. blogger .com/

WHAT are they writing about?

WHY are they publishing?

Are outsiders commenting?

What is the WORTH of such sites?

Instructional Use of Blogs

Difference between journaling and blogging

Develop language skills

Can promote critical thinking

Promote creative thinking

Increase exposure to quality information

Promote reflection and social interaction

Can be used as reflection journals, class portals, online filing cabinets, portfolios, websites

Instructional Use of Blogs

Post prompts for writing

Provide exemplars of class work--celebrate and display student work!

Provide online readings for classes to react to and comment on

Gather and organize internet resources

Post photos and class activities

Literature circles

Online book clubs

To understand the potential of blogging as a teaching and learning tool, become a blogger! (for today, at least!)

Open a Personal Blog Account

For a free personal blog space, go to Blogger.com (take the tour)

Investigate blogging by developing a personal blog (at least 3 entries) on a topic that you might post to on a consistent or interval basis such as: lesson topics, restaurant reviews, places visited/to visit, recipes, what makes you laugh, quotes/thoughts for inspiration, baseball/sports musings, LI attractions, ANYTHING! But……

Use Discretion in Blogging

Information posted today may have a shelf life of many years

A personal tidbit about blog retention-- found this “artifact” when logging onto the new blogger.com

A blog is not a place to lash out at others or post reasons why you are not happy with your job!

Free Blog Tools For Classes

*For class blogs in a safe, private space, look at class blogmesiter .com

You’ll need to discuss appropriate blogging policies with your class, so here is a great resource:

http: //budtheteacher . com/wiki

How do I remember where this stuff is?

You’ve seen all these great blogs and are now suffering from “infowhelm”! HOW do you remember WHERE this great info is and how to RETURN to it?

Use RSS feed technology!

What are RSS Feeds?

RSS stands for R eally S imple S yndication

A technology that helps you subscribe to frequently updated web content like blogs, news feeds, podcasts and vodcasts

You then use an aggregator to collect all these subscriptions in one place

Aggregators can be software or web-based

Search and Subscribe

Get a page at bloglines .com to store all your RSS feeds; once you do this, all you have to do is go to that page once in awhile to read ALL your news in one place!