Thursday, June 2, 2011

Blogging with Students

There's plenty of resources available about how and why to integrate blogging into the classroom. Several blog posts in this Computers in the Classroom blog address the topic. Thus, in addition to resources listed in this specific blog, check out the index to find more resources on blogging in the classroom. Here I offer resources for using blogging with students in a variety of settings.

In this video, 4th graders talk about blogging and what they blog about and what writing for a blog is like for them. It is worth watching to hear about the benefits of blogging from their perspective.


Here is a very short video with just words and captions on why let our students blog:






For those of you who teach elementary school and are interested in using KidBlog, here's a very short video about how to use this blog.



For those of you interested in using Blogger, here is a short video about how to use blogger to set up classroom blogging.



This video discusses the why and how of blogging. Although focused on higher education, it points out numerous ways blogging supports student learning.




Here are links to two blog posts and articles to help you think further about blogging with students:
"14 Steps to Meaningful Blogging with Students"
"Blogging with Elementary School Students"

Also, I just found this web quest that a teacher created to introduce her students to blogging. Check out the web quest for ideas about how you might introduce blogging to your students, even if you have been using blogging and are looking for new ideas:

Web quest: "Blogging: It's Elementary"

Please add comments about which of the above resources were useful to you and why.  Also, let us know about additional resources available online about the power of blogging with students. If you blog with your students, tell  us how the experience has been going and how you might make changes in  the future. Let us know what blogging platform you are using and why.

1 comment:

Johanna said...

I think the video that expressed students' experiences and reflections about blogging was great. It was interesting to hear these students talk about how motivating it can be to know you're writing for a global audience. It sounded like this also helped set a purpose for writing and encouraged writers to become more aware of proofreading and editing. When I read the article that outlined 14 steps to meaningful blogging with students, I was reminded of just how important it is to preteach students why they are blogging, and to set up safety guidelines. I also think it is a good idea to send home a letter to families explaining the blog and inviting them to participate in their chlidren's blogging activities at home. I currently use EDUblog with my third graders, but am curious about KidBlog. I watched the short video here, on how to set up a classroom blog on Kidblog, but I am still left wondering how KidBlog could be used to allow students to set up their own individual blogs, as we had briefly discussed in class. Has anyone else tried this and had success?

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