How do you assess all of this?

Assessments of blogs can be a unique assignment to grade. I follow the following criteria for issuing grades:

1. Relevant posting that presents insightful perspective
2. Clearly responds to only one prompt or original post at a time
3. Meets deadline for completion of posts
4. Has obviously been spell & grammar checked before posting
5. If a minimum word length is specified, it is within 20 words of the goal
6. Any references not belonging to the blogger include an MLA citation
7. Includes an original title for the response

My goal for blogging is a reflection of best thinking while reinforcing writing practices from my classroom. The best suggestion, I can give you, is to decide what the purpose of your blogging is and build your assessment around that. Additionally, keep in mind what you are covering in class and use this as a means to reinforce those skills.

I start my students out blogging slowly. They begin with email responses to me, which then lead to blogging responses, and then to the creation of their own personal websites with the responses and more.

How to start

So you have decided to branch out and try this blogging thing you keep hearing about, but you’re not sure where to start.  Here is a list of steps to make the process easier and less daunting.  Remember that a site is begun with one post and grows from there.  Sites like the one you are on with multiple pages and links to other pages by the same author take time – months, years, longer – so don’t be intimidated by the sites you see already up an running; they all started at one time as well.  Finally, keep in mind that the set up takes time, but once you are up and running, the time involved is what you chose to make it.

1. Choose a purpose for your site.  Is it for student interactions with blogs?  Is it for your own reflections?  Is it a location to store your lessons and resources?  Post assignments?  Make a choice.  If you want it all, start with one and then branch out.
2. Check with your district if this is a site that you want to access or have your students access at school.  Some blogging server sites are blocked by districts, but more and more districts have one or two select sites approved for usage.  Remember that there are enough free blog sites out there that you should not have to pay for the site.  (Some of the better sites for teachers include: Edublogs.org, wordpress.com, blogger.com, etc.)
3. Sign up an account with the host you choose to use.  Then play.  Take some time and play around with the system.  Post a test post that can be deleted later.  Find the ways to customize the site and play with them.  Find your information and make sure that only information you want to reveal is included there.
   • I recommend adopting some type of pseudonym to operated online under.  Remember that if you are going to use this site with your students, the pseudonym needs to be similar to what the kids normally call you.  For instance, I go by Mrs. G on anything related to educational activities, with or without my students involved.  This allows me to keep my professional life separate from my personal life.
4. Consider carefully what you finally choose to place on your site.  Things posted never really are deleted, even after you press delete to bring the site down.  Don’t let this aspect scare you off, just be cognizant of what you are posting and who has access to the site.
5. Before rolling out blog activities with your students, you need to take a couple of steps.
   • Read your electronic usage policy from your district closely.  Make sure you know it inside and out.
   • Contact your IS/IT contact on campus and/or at district, and check about any additional policies that are not printed.  i.e. What types of sites are blocked at the school?  Is YouTube and/or TeacherTube blocked as direct links and/or as embedded videos on your site?
   • Verify your principal is aware of what you are planning to do with the site if it involves the students; even if they don’t fully comprehend the ins and outs of the system, make sure they know what you are doing.
   • Check if your school has notification/permission forms to let parents know that students will be posting online, but that safety measures will be in place.  If they don’t have one, make a decision as to whether you need one or not.  I would definitely make sure you notify parents of your plans if you are working with younger students – older students are not usually as much of a problem, but that also depends on the socio-economic population your school services.
   • Think about and plan how you want students to post on the blogs.  Assign the names for students to operate as online.  Establish rules for online conduct and draft hard copies for your students.
6. READY.  Design the lesson with the blog usage and setup the blog for usage.

Be prepared for hiccups the first few times.  There is a learning curve for blog usage with classes.  As you become more comfortable with the usage, branch out with more functions – movies, pictures, vokis, podcasts, etc.

NOTE: If you want to post pictures of your students online, legally you MUST have permission from the parents.  Most schools are now having parents sign a permission form the first week of school with the other technology/electronic usage forms.  Check with your school’s admin and district before creating your own.  Remember to keep the slips on record for as long as you have the image posted on your site if you have to create your own.

More Rules to consider

Additional Notes & Recommendations

1. Provide multiple days for response to the blog.  I recommend at least a week.
2. Set a clear due date and time for responses and include it in your original prompting post.  Be prepared to extend the time if there has been a lack of computer access during the period you have provided (i.e. the media center gets shut down for testing, etc.), or take the students to the lab for 10 mins. (this will work for easy response items, harder ones will need extensions).
3. Turn off the ability to respond to posts when the due date & time is reached.
4. Make sure this is a graded assignment to add accountability.
5. Allow students to email you directly any late posts with justification as to why it was late and still should be accepted.  Cut and paste the additional post into the site if you accept it.  Remember to stay true to your late policy even with these responses.
6. Keep a reminder on the board in class for the entire time period for the first few assignments.
7. Never allow students to post under their full names – edit posts if needed and speak with the student immediately.  I consider this an act of not following classroom procedure and will be addressed with discipline action.
8. Do NOT allow text-messaging dialect to be used for responses.
9. After you have used blogging a couple of times, have the students complete an anonymous survey/questionnaire to help you refine the whole process.  Have them provide you with suggestions to improve it – some of my best aspects of refinement came directly from the students.  I would suggest repeating this after each unit you use this in to tweak your process.
10. Remember the prompting question need to be thought provoking – not knowledge based.  Aim for the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy for the questions.  Also, the more controversial the prompt or statement, the more response you will receive.
11. Remember when you view the comments in the admin “Manage Comments” there is an IP address for each and every post listed.  IP addresses are unique to the computer used to post the response.  Thus, you can tell who posts what, even if they do not give their name more than once – this does take some back tracking on your part to figure out the culprit. I have begun explaining IP addresses (generally) to the classes blogging and that you can tell who posted the information based on the address.  However, be aware, if the post is done from school, sometimes there is a generic IP applied to ALL posts from the school.  Students do not know this second part.
    • Problems that can arise (I have only had this happen once)
      • someone tries to post under someone else name
      • someone posts inappropriate material anonymously

Blogging Safety

Mrs. G’s Rules for Blogging

Although there are many sites with varying opinions on what and how to ensure safety for students online, here are the rules that students adhere to and I enforce.

1. Use a pseudonym and don’t give away any identifying details;  I will assign the name each student will use for their responses.
2. Do not link to your personal blog or website (including: MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Sonico, Tagged, Vox, Windows Live Spaces, or other web site); this is an academic assignment on a site for academic discourse.  Therefore a level of professionalism will be maintained.
3. Make sure the tone of discourse is civil.  If you wish to share your opinion or disagree, there are ways to do this that invite intelligent debate.  In that same vein, remember you are representing your school when you post here, and you may not criticize other groups, schools, or organizations in the name of your school.
4. Be sure to check your posts for grammar, mechanics, usage, and spelling.  It might be helpful to type it in a word processing program first.  Remember, too, that this is writing for school.  If you wouldn’t turn it in to your strictest teacher, don’t post it here.  (This means: NO TEXT MESSAGE formats of writing.)
5. Only the pseudonyms will be used to refer to other individuals, and no one may write about another individual online with or without their permission.  This is a matter of respect for people’s right to privacy on the web; you do not have the right to break the privacy of others by using information about them in your post(s).
6. Share your sources.  If you used other web sites or books to defend an argument, link to them so your readers can check them out, too.
7. Make sure the post is relevant to education.  Post your academic writing, important club events, reporting on school, etc., but don’t share your weekend plans or goofy online quiz results.  Non-academic responses will be removed from the site.
8. Do NOT attach pictures of yourself or others to your posts, this also includes uploading images as avatars.  All avatars must by cartoon/anime style images that have no direct correlation to the student.
9. ALL knowledge and images taken from another source must be cited.  Information and images “borrowed” without giving credit to the origin constitutes stealing and WILL result in discipline action.

Educational blogging?

WHAT, WHY, & HOW…

1. Video: Blogs in Plain English by leelefever (November 30, 2007)
2. What Exactly is a Blog, Anyway? by Andy Carvin (May 22, 2006) PBS Teachers: Learning.now
3. Kids are blogging their brains out:Students in Glenwood Springs are learning to take pride in writing, teachers say by Pete Fowler (April 7, 2007) Vail Daily beta
4. Profs contribute to new blog by Alan Montes (September 20, 2006) Yale Daily News
5. Panelists: Blogs are changing education – winners of the first-ever ‘Best of Education Blog’ Awards discuss blogging’s impact on teaching on learning by Dennis Pierce (March 24, 2006) eSchool News Technology News for Today’s K-20 Educator
6. Favorite Education Blogs of 2008 by Jay Matthews (April 7, 2008) Washingtonpost.com
7. Educational Blogging by Stephen Downes (2004) Educause Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14-26
8. Bloggers Cafe: A Vision for Classroom Blogging (PDF Download to read) by Anne Davis (2008) International Society for Technology in Education: 7
9. Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally by Andrew Churches (April 1, 2008) techLEARNING Educators eZine
10. 20 reasons why students should blog by Anne M. (March 14, 2008) On an e-journey with generation Y

*GUHSDAZ has approved the use of Edublogs – a free blogging platform

Mrs. G’s Suggestions for blog site uses with students

• Establish calendars for homework and other class information
• Use it as a way to communicate with parents
• Post prompts for writing
• Create authentic writing purposes with immediate audiences
• Provide examples of class work, vocabulary activities, or games to reinforce instruction
• Provide online readings for students to read, react to, and write from
• Gather and provide links to internet resources for specific purposes
• Create activities (WebQuest & Launch Pages)
• Have students initiate the post to be responded to
• Provide links to additional information about topic being studied in class – readings to inspire learning
• Create a literature circle
• Create an online book club, poetry club, creative writing club, etc.
• Have students create their own individual course blogs – post their ideas, reactions, and written work (electronic portfolio aspect)
• Build a newsletter with student-written articles and photos they take
• Use to generate a project-based learning
• Peer responses to each other’s writing
• Link to other classes somewhere in the world

Why should you use blogging in the classroom?

Research information & links…

Read Jeff Felix’s dissertation on the blogging educators

• Jeff Felix, Superintendent of Coronado Unified School District on the island of Coronado near San Diego. This blog is posted in order for people to benefit from the research he conducted on the phenomenon of blogging as an instructional practice in the K-12 classroom.

Read Project New Media Literacies: Learning in a participatory culture

• NML is a research initiative within MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program. According to a 2007 study from the Pew Center for Internet & American Life, more than half of all teens have created media content and roughly a third of teens online have shared content they produced with others. In many cases, these teens are actively involved in what we are calling participatory culture.
• Participatory culture stresses the role of teens as creators, circulators, connectors, and collaborators–rather than simply consumers–of media. Young people participate in the creation and circulation of media content within social networks that extend from their circle of face-to-face friends to a larger virtual community around the world.
• Our central goal is to engage educators and learners in today’s participatory culture. It is our belief that young people need to both make and reflect upon media and in the process, acquire important skills in team work, leadership, problem solving, collaboration, brainstorming, communications, and creating projects.

Read Blog of Proximal Development: Working towards agency-building practice

• My name is Konrad Glogowski and I am the voice behind the blog of proximal development. I am a PhD candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. My thesis focuses on the use of blogging communities in education. This blog is an attempt to vocalize some of my thoughts on this subject and comment on the impact that blogging and blogging communities have on my classroom and my students.
• This blog takes its title from the concept developed by Lev Vygotsky. The Zone of Proximal Development, as defined by Vygotsky, is
  

  the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.

• The Zone of Proximal Development refers to those skills that are in the process of maturation. Vygotsky refers to these potentialities as “buds” of development.

Read New schemas for mapping pedagogies and technologies

• Gráinne Conole reflects on the implications of Web 2.0 for education and offers two new schemas for thinking about harnessing the potential of technologies.

In this article I want to reflect on the rhetoric of ‘Web 2.0’ and its potential versus actual impact. I want to suggest that we need to do more than look at how social networking technologies are being used generally as an indicator of their potential impact on education, arguing instead that we need to rethink what are the fundamental characteristics of learning and then see how social networking can be harnessed to maximise these characteristics to best effect. I will further argue that the current complexity of the digital environment requires us to develop ‘schema’ or approaches to thinking about how we can best harness the benefits these new technologies confer.