Blogging Changes

Last week was been extremely busy. We have exams coming up this week and I spent most of last week finishing up all of my commitments from this term, coaching badminton, and writing exams. Not much time for anything else.

But one decision I did make this week is to begin migrating some of my class blogs from classblogmeister.com to James Farmer's learner blogs. This has been a major decision for me and not one that I undertake lightly.

Beginning blogging with my class has been a powerful experience of connection and learning. We have been able to do it easily and just as importantly, safely, because of the controls at blogmeister. This site has allowed posts and comments to be emailed to me before they go live on the net and as with all kids who are learning to blog, this control has allowed me to catch some inappropriate content before it has gone online. It has been a good place for my kids and I to learn about blogging and what it can offer us.

But to be honest, we have had some trouble at blogmeister lately. Our RSS feeds have not been working, nothing the kids have been posting (articles or comments) has been getting emailed to me. This has been an especially sore point because now I need to search through each individual account to see if anything is new and needs to be posted. This has required a large amount of time and has turned blogging into a chore.

So this week I am going to take some of my most prolific writers and move them over to learner blogs. Using this site we will have more control over content, templates, and RSS feeds. I am also hoping that using this site we will be able to work with other tools such as Super Glu and shoutboxes.

I am going to miss having the ability to approve all posts and comments before they go live and I will worry about that. But as I am not a supporter of web filtering in schools, it is time to allow the kids to move on. We have definitely talked a lot in class about blogging guidelines and about responsibility, but when they had me for a filter, these issues were not as important. But the kids being on learner blogs will be different. Blogging guidelines and responsibility become much more vital.

One thing I have seen this year is the kids grow and respond to certain tools. Some kids have turned in to great prolific bloggers. Other prefer our wiki. Some kids have made great use of their Bloglines accounts while others have hardly touched them. Now we are moving on to Skype. I have been discussing it with the kids in my class and now at least half a dozen of them have set up Skype accounts. I have learned this year valuable lessons about exposing kids to tools, teaching them how to sue them safely and ethically, and then allowing them to use those which suit their purposes best. While I expect them to be able to use any of the tools, I need to allow them choices and responsibility in their communication channels.

I hope by moving over to Learner Blogs that the kids who want more from their blogs will get it. This site will allow them to dig deeper in issues of design and communication. For some kids, the change will mean little to them because they use their blogs little. But for others, this change will allow them to expand and think at new levels.

technorati tags: blogging, learner blogs, change

Comments

[Glenn Malone]

"teaching them how to sue them safely and ethically"...I couldn't resist :)

We are just beginning to look at student blogs. Any advice on a starting point for a teacher that hasn't begun?

[Miguel Guhlin]

Howdy! Why don't you take a look at setting up your own blogging server? You could use the free stuff. You can find both a WordPress or b2Evolution tutorials online at
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog/archives/2006/01/entry_1086.htm

Let me know if you need help setting up. I especially like b2Evolution since it gives me lots of user permissions control, including the right to publish protected student writing. This is what we ended up using in lieu of ClassBlogmeister (although I wouldn't dream of being critical of David's masterpiece...for some folks, that's all there is). From a district perspective, I would discourage using external blogging resources that we don't have control over the content. I certainly know that others in tech without instructional background would frown on that idea and work to oppose it.

Better to avoid all that and set up your own blog. I bet you can be up and running in no time with a spare computer....

Miguel Guhlin
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

[Mike Hetherington]

Glen and Clarence,
I just recently set up a class blog for my 6th grade students at James Farmer's Learnerblogs site. It's moderated (I moderate all posts and comments for appropriateness)and so far the students have actively involved themselves in creating content and commenting on each others work. You can check out the student site at http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org.

I also posted a short "how-to" guide for setting up a class blog on Learnerblogs at http://mhetherington.net/blogs

Good luck. Clarence,your students' blogs are impressive.Your 7th and 8th graders are very creative and are on the way to mastering the art of conversational writing. You are using a more individual blog approach(using aggregation such as the Suprglu site) compared to my group blog, but both configerations have merit. Congratulations.

[Mike Hetherington]

Sorry, The first link in my previous comment should be http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org
The period ended up in the link..whoops :(