Blogging Formats and Platforms

There are different formats teachers can set up for blogging in the classroom including: Teacher blogs, Class Discussion blogs and Student blogs. There are also different platforms. This post will discuss a combination of both topics.

Teacher blogs: I have utilized this blog as a vehicle to share what I did in the classroom in regards to technology integration. I shared it via Twitter, and with job applications. Back in the day, I had a good following, but once I quite posting and sharing, that fell off. Understandably. My goal was just to share as much as possible the things I helped teachers with and did myself in the classroom.

The platform I use is Blogger, and having used it for so many years, it is really easy for me to use. One downside is I included a lot of pictures from my Google Drive, and since I left that position, the pictures no longer appear. For me, this Teacher blog will be my vehicle for sharing what I do with the world. I don't plan on using it for students to read/learn from in regard to our class curriculum.

Class Discussion blogs: In the past, I usually used discussion threads in Moodle, which would be similar to the discussion threads available in BlackBoard. Students could comment on each other, and I could easily see what they wrote. It was very nice for me to be able to see what everyone posted in one place, and have control over deleting comments if necessary - which I rarely had to do. It was a safe space and I didn't have to worry about things being shared outside the classroom.

Student blogs: While I never had a student blog in my own classroom, I assisted many other teachers in creating them for their classrooms. At two schools, I helped the Language Arts teachers and students set up individual Blogger blogs where they posted all their writing. The idea was the student could write, revise, share, comment etc with their classmates. They could customize them and add photos as well. Which is where we ran into some problems with students putting full names and photos on their blogs. It was a very challenging situation to manage, and I think that turned me off to student blogs. We then used KidBlog, which at the time was free, to help keep the blog posts in the classroom, yet still allow for students to comment on each others.

That format seemed to work much better for privacy purposes. I guess privacy, managing student sharing and commenting, and the general challenge of keeping track of all of this are the reasons I have not used Student blogs in my own classroom. Using BlackBoard for student blog posts is a halfway point I could explore. As I learn more about using BlackBoard, I will have to keep this in mind. 

Blogging in the Classroom

As I wrote the title to this blog post, I realized that many years ago, I actually presented on this topic at the Iowa 1:1 conference - strange how that slipped my mind until I wrote it. At the time, I was teaching computer classes to K-3 grade students, and supporting the teachers in integrating technology into their classrooms. Here is a copy of the presentation.

 At the same time, I was helping the 6th grade teachers and students create student blogs on Blogger for their Language Arts class. This was something I had also helped Pewaukee Middle school Language Arts teachers and students do do. Yet as I transitioned into teaching Middle School Social Studies classes, I never had the students create a blog. I guess I never saw a reason to do it.

Yet, I am very much in favor of students creating portfolios of their learning, especially when it shows a progression of work, or a compilation of skills. This past year, I have used Google Slides as the vehicle for portfolios. Mostly though, they were portfolios for just the student and myself to see. It was an easy way to show all their work in one place, hosted in Classroom so I could always access it, and could incorporate photos, videos and writing. All the things you can do on a blog. As I write this, I feel I need to revisit my thoughts on student blogging and delve a little deeper into the possibilities it could bring.

Sharing work with a larger audience, including classmates and parents, would be one advantage. Another advantage, is sharing work with the world at large (with their permission) as I do on this blog and had done extensively through Twitter - a platform I need to return to.

For in sharing with the world at large, you have a tremendous impact by sharing ideas, teaching others new things, and in return, bringing "home" new ideas to help student succeed in the classroom.

I think in the past, I always associated student blogs with the Language Arts focus of write, revise, share, revise etc. I wasn't looking at it as a portfolio, which is what this blog is. I'm starting to like the idea of a blog as a portfolio and will have to start tumbling ideas around in my head for next year.