Blogs

Definition
[|Stephen Downs] "A blog ... is and has always been more than the online equivalent of a personal journal. Though consisting of regular (and often dated) updates, the blog adds to the form of the diary by incorporating the best features of hypertext: the capacity to link to new and useful resources.

But a blog is also characterized by its reflection of a personal style, and this style may be reflected in either the writing or the selection of links passed along to readers. Blogs are, in their purest form, the core of what has come to be called //personal publishing//. In the hands of teachers and students, blogs become something more again" (par. 17).

[| Will Richardson] "A Weblog is an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection."

Rationale
Part of the joy of the Read/Write Web (R/WW) is the ability to have information come to you - specifically the information you want to have. Just like subscribing to a magazine, using an RSS aggregator allows you to pull information from all types of online sources. As educators it's important to keep up on what's happening in our field and to get a first hand view of what's changing. Right now Ed Tech is changing every day.

Here is what [|Anne Davis] has to say about an [|rationale for educational blogging].

Implementation
In his book, //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms//, Will Richardson gives some compelling reasons for using blogs in the classroom:
 * 1) Weblogs are a constructivist tool for learning
 * 2) Weblogs expand the walls of the classroom
 * 3) Weblogs archive the learning that teachers and students do, facilitation all sorts of reflection and metacognitive analysis
 * 4) Weblogs are democratic tools that support different learning styles
 * 5) Weblogs can enhance the development of expertise in a particular subject
 * 6) Weblogs can teach students the new literacies they will need to function in an ever expanding information society.

Instructional/Tutorial Sites and Hosting

 * [|21Publish] is designed to be used as a publishing network
 * [|Blogger] is a free tool to create an individual blog. You can post your blog to its free posting site Blogspot, or link to your own server. Complete step-by-step directions are available to help you set up a blog.
 * [|Gaggle] Blogs are a way that students and educators can interface with the rest of the world. Gaggle Blogs are filtered for inappropriate words and phrases. All images are scanned for pornographic content and all URL links are checked for pornographic content. If any rules are violated, the offending blog entry for will be blocked and sent to the authors administrator email address pending approval.
 * [|Blogmeister] allows teachers to set up and control a blog account for a class of students. Complete step-by step directions are available at Blogmeister, David Warlick's creation.
 * [|ePals School Blog] - Robust and safe commercial solution free of advertising, designed for literacy development
 * [|WordPress] is an easy and powerful way to start blogging.

Tutorials

 * [|21Publish]
 * [|Setting up a class blog] using Blogmeister
 * [|Setting up a blog on Blogger]

**Examples & Scenarios**
Your class is reading, The Secret Life of Bees. A blog is set up as a place for students to discuss, reflect and research the novel. As a side note, you invite the author to participate, and she does! This was [|Will Richardson's project] with his high school lit class.


 * Educational Bloggers**
 * [|Cool Cat Teacher] - Vicki Davis is s a teacher and technology administrator at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia and a 2006 Edublog award finalist.
 * [|Landmarks for Schools] - David Warlick
 * [|MITE6323] - Daniel Churchill uses his blog as an environment where students can access course material, post reflections, feature artifacts created through the learning tasks, comment and critique each others work. He is a 2006 Edublog award finalist.
 * [|Blog of Proximal Development] - Konrad Glogowski uses this blog with his 7th grade students
 * [|Meriwether Elementary School] - School Website is a blog
 * [|Cycling Through Ed Tech] - Cheri Toledo


 * Classroom Examples**
 * [|A Difference] - Josie Frasier is a math teacher at a high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and a 2006 Edublog award finalist.
 * Frasier's advanced calculus class creates "digital stories" centered around math concepts on [|this post]
 * [|Our ABC Blook on Blogging]
 * [|Blogical Minds]
 * [|A Really Different Place]
 * [|Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog]
 * [|Shanghai American School]

Additional Resources

 * On [|Technorati], you can **search** for a blog by keyword or URL. More importantly, Technorati keeps track of when blogs are updated and the number of links to each blog.
 * [|Bloglines] - Bloglines is a free online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and other web content.
 * [|Weblogs Compendium] - A resource with everything you need to know about blogs: hosting services, tools, directories, definitions, RSS readers and additional resources.
 * [|A Comprehensive Guide to a Professional Blog Site]
 * [|Legal Guide] for Bloggers.
 * An [|example rubric] which might be used to evaluate blog participation.
 * [|A Wiki of Blogging Resources]
 * [|Safe and Responsible Blogging]
 * [|Think.com] specializes as a center for teachers and students to collaborate on teacher created projects. Security is very tight and requires a school username and password. Parent pages can be created for external viewing
 * Blogs on Educational Blogging

 Richardson, Will. (2006). //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms//. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.