[English] Blogging

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

At 11:31 AM 23/08/2007, Margaret writes:

A few years back (in a previous school) we ran a pilot group with a Year 9
English class where they used www.livejournal.com as the vehicle for doing
book reviews. 

This blogging environment allowed the kids to create a blog entry on the
books that they were reading, and post it to the class site.

They could also keep a private blog on the side if they wanted to.

We found that it only really worked well if it was weaved into the
assessment of the subject. We slowly worked the kids upto complex entries.

For example: first entry was a simple 50 word reflection, then the next
entry had to target something, then when they finished the book they had
to compare and contrast their experience with another book review. 

By the end of the unit the kids were commenting on each others work and
that "reflective" environment was very much in existance.

Blogs work well if the kids are given time to do them in class. They tend
not work as well if you leave it upto the kids to do it all for homework.

In IT classes, the application could be similar. The equivalent of keeping
a "learning journal" of the programming experience they are having in each
class. For the ESL kids, they can create their blog entry in word and
copy/paste over after they have checked their work.

I found livejournal to be one of the better environments as I could a)
create a community group for the class and b) restrict who could read that
group (ie. it wasn't open to the world).

Hope that this helps

Regards

Margaret


On Mon, August 20, 2007 3:25 pm, Russell Edwards wrote:
>

> On 20/08/2007, at 3:03 PM, Kerrie A Hammond wrote:
>
>>
>> I keep hearing a lot about blogging yet have no idea how to use it
>> in my classroom. I would be greatful if any list contributors, who are
>> currently using blogging, could give me some hints on where to start.
>
> Hi Kerrie,
>
> I use blogs in two ways in my Year 9/10 classes
>
> 1) For each class, I make a "class blog", where each unit of work is
> listed and full handouts placed for viewing or download
>
> 2) Each student makes their own blog. At the end of each unit of work
> (typically 2 weeks long), they write a reflective entry on the work
> they have done, where possible uploading the actual product or an
> image/screenshot. This forms part of the VELS ICT for Communicating
> assessment, and where the product is adequately displayed I will often do
> the assessment of that (for the other dimensions) just by looking at
> their blog. 
>
> Also, some units of work give them some specific questions, which
> they answer in a blog entry for assessment in either or both of the other
> two ICT dimensions.  

> Their blog entries are also meant to include a "trackback" link to the
> corresponding entry of the class blog, however I have found that these
> often inexplicably fail to work (on wordpress.com blogs).
>
> I think this has great potential, but as with everything else, it
> often founders on the shoals of student disengagement...
>
> HTH
>
>
> Russell
--

Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia