[Yr7-10it] Blogging

[Nash, Peter N]

What about Wikispaces, it combines all the good things that blogs bring
into the class room as well as collaborative work projects that can be
edited by the group on-line and assessed by the teacher who is the
moderator. Wikis I find more effective and I use them in all my subjects
from year 7 to year 12. Another advantage is that the students can
access and work on their projects at home on the internet.

Read my article in the VITTA magazine (issue 2, 2007)
http://www.vitta.org.au/pubs/infonet/view.php?id=293

Try it !!!

Regards

Peter Nash

IT Teacher
Galvin Park Secondary College
Shaws Road, Werribee, Vic. 3030

Tel: (03) 9741 4911

-----Original Message-----
From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of
margaret.lawson at konstantkaos.net
Sent: Thursday, 23 August 2007 11:31 AM
To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] Blogging

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 taht 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
>
>
>
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Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.