This document discusses using blogs to encourage student writing and reflection. It provides examples of blog platforms like Weebly, Edmodo, Blogger, and WordPress that can be used. The goal is for students to express opinions, reflect on their writing, and comment on classmates' posts. When students write blog entries and comment, it creates an online community. This helps students practice clear communication and get feedback to improve. The document also discusses using blogs for project-based learning, with an example project about the importance of recycling and its impact on keeping the Earth clean for future generations.

2. Blogs and Technology as Tools for
Social Consciousness and Charge
EDUC704
TheTeachingofWriting:TheoryandPractice
PhilipR.Murray-Finley,Ed.D
UniversityofTurabo

3. Today’s quote:
•“Why do we write?
To make suffering endurable..
To make evil intelligible…
To make justice desirable…”
― Roger Rosenblatt, Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing

4. So, where are we going today?
•In today’s lesson, we will examine what blogs
are and how to use them. The idea here is to
encourage you as students to express your
opinions, reflect on your own
communication strengths and needs, and to
comment on the postings of your
classmates.

5. BUT, WHY?
•Reading and writing texts online are
basic skills that students need to
become literate citizens in the 21st
century. Learning with blogs will help
you as a student in both of these
activities, and will also enable you to
easily publish your writing and to share
these ideas with a real audience.

6. BUT, WHY?
•When you write blog entries and comment on
the entries of their peers, blogs become an
important part of a true community. You can
post on topics like journal/diary entries,
reflections on your writing process, details on
your research projects, commentary on recent
events or readings, and drafts for other writing
you are doing.

7. But, Why?
• Once you post an entry, others in the class can
respond, provide supportive feedback, and offer
additional suggestions or points of view. By
writing and commenting on blogs, you are writing
for real readers (not just for your teachers). As a
result, you can focus on clear communication and
get immediate feedback on whether you
communicate effectively.

8. WEEBLY
http://mrsuarezenglish.weebly.com/

9. Edmodo

10. BLOGGER

11. WORDPRESS

12. What are we trying to do?
At the end of today’s lesson, we will be able
to:
•• define what a 'blog' is and understand
blog-related words
•• use a blog to practice writing skills
•• use a blog to enhance your reflection on
learning

13. What is a blog?
• A blog (short for weblog) is a website that is
updated frequently and that often resembles an
online journal. It's so easy to create and update a
blog - it requires only basic access to the Internet,
and a minimum of technical know-how. Because
of this, it is one of the easiest ways to publish
student writing on the internet. It's almost as easy
as sending an email.

14. •These days, blogs can also display photos and
some people are using them with audio and
even video, but today we will concentrate on
the basics, showing how a simple text-based
blog can be used to great effect to help learn
the English language and help make you
think about things.

15. Why should we write?
• “Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society.”
Saul Alinsky
Each student must realize that in order to take an active role in
our society and create long-lasting change in a democracy, they
must seek to shape public opinion by making their voices heard,
their ideas and positions clear, and their cause visible. In today’s
world, that means that they must manage modern media as well
as its technology.

17. We can piece together a story…

18. Where shall we begin?
• There are lots of sites where you can set up a blog for
free, but perhaps the best known and one of the most
reliable and simple blogging tools to use is Blogger
(http://blogger.com). It takes only fifteen minutes from
setting up an account to publishing the first post.
• The teacher will set up either a Class blog or a Learner
blog

19. BLOGS & PROJECT BASED LEARNING
•A blog is an ideal space for
developing a project, especially if
the project is a shared one between
several classes or even classes in
different countries.

20. PROJECT: RECYCLE

21. The Essential Question
•Why is recycling important and
how does it keep the Earth
clean and protected for future
generations?

22. A PLASTIC OCEAN

23. Let me think about this…
• The Earth is our only home, to take care of it is in our best
interest as its inhabitants. Some countries produce far larger
amounts of waste than others, and some have more proactive
recycling plans than others. Environmental issues are at the top
of the list for most news and current event discussions, with
concerns about global warming and manufacturing
catastrophes like the Gulf oil spill. Of all the trash produced, only
a small amount is recycled compared to what could be. Most
waste ends up in a landfill with some reaching the oceans and
waterways of the world.

24. Let me think about this…
• Despite the best efforts of landfills to help protect the
environment from waste, dumping garbage in a hole to
be covered and left is not preferable to recycling and
reusing. The available landfill space is decreasing in our
city, the United States and all over the world. What we
decide to use and what we decide to throw away can
have a major impact on the earth.

25. The Challenge before us
• To improve our school and exhibit to the
surrounding community by finding ways to
encourage recycling, reuse waste materials and
creatively "recycle" those materials that cannot be
reused or recycled directly.

26. Questions…
• What is recycling?
• What happens to items that are not recycled?
• What is PLASTIC ISLAND?
• How is water effected by pollution from recyclable materials?
How is land effected?