Blogging in the Classroom

[Rob Kamrowski]

Live Video streamed by Ustream
I recently visited Will Richardson's weblogg-ed blog to watch a presenter at the National Education Computing Conference discuss how he uses blogging in the classroom (You can follow the link to watch the presentation yourself.). The presenter, Konrad Glogowski, an eigth grade writing teacher, discussed his use of blogs as a "third place" for students to express themselves. The first place being students home, the second school, and the third, a sort of place where they are free to creatively express themselves. At the begining of the year, Mr. Glogowski challenged his students to "grow" a blog. He presented them a visual to assist them in planning their creation and, pretty much, allowed them the freedom to make their own product. He watched as the blogs and classroom community grew. Fellow students commented on one another's blog entries, offering advice and building fellow classmates confidence in their writing. Mr. Glogowski's role as teacher evolved into a reader of work and a partner in learning rather than an evaluator and expert of information. By the end of the year, his students had great pride in their work, bonded as a communtiy, and were better, more confident, writers. The likely hood that they would continue to work on their blogs and writing was extremely high. Mr. Glogowski's strategy and his educational philosophy towards blogging was a success.

This is a terrific example of using blogging in a writting classroom. My question is,how do we social study teachers use this theory in our classroom? Perhaps, history students could create their own interpertation of history using a blog, or they could communicate with historical figures still alive today using a blog. What are your thoughts? How do you use blogging in your classroom? Is there a place for blogs in the social study classroom?

Original post can be found at Mr.Social Study

[Sheri Edwards]

Thanks, I've started two Ning: one for 7/8 and one for alumni, so we can keep the conversation going. I'm still thinking about how to introduce and begin Ning in the classroom. I'm taking the PBWiki summer camp right now. I think Time will be spent differntly now for teachers and students.

[Vicki Davis]

Sheri - I use Ning because they take the ads off for free AND because there is literally zero learning curve. The students are in their native environment and just love it in Ning. It can be private or public. If you need help, let me know.

[Sheri Edwards]

WOW! I started from this blog at 7:00 pm and transported myself through videos and blogs that will continue to guide me through to blogging with students. It's now after 10:00 pm. Thanks for the learning adventure! What is your take on Ning as a classroom blog, versus 21 Classes?

[Vicki Davis]

Thanks for the quick response, Rob. I appreciate it so much. Also, thanks for letting me know about the video missing audio at the beginning, that kept me from being frustrated. Of course, you could rip this off the ustream using zamzar and cut out the first few minutes and upload it, however, that is when we all start getting in the gray area unless this is creative commons derivative works allowed.

[Rob Kamrowski]

Thanks Vicki, I found it and posted it for you!

[Vicki Davis]

This is an excellent post. Wow! I have one suggestion. How about going back and getting the ustream and embedding it in this post? I now want to go back and find the ustream you're talking about but it will take me time?

If you go to ustream and find the post, just copy the embed code and paste it at the top of your blog. I would love to see you update this! Also, great use of tagging.