Blogging in Education

[Kristen Williams]

If you are looking for an interesting, interactive, and collaborative way to gain and spread knowledge with others or your students, try BLOGGING! There are many free and user friendly blogs available to the education world (Blogger, operated by Google, Google Blog, Edublog, Blogsphere, etc.) There are many others just Google "blogs". I use my Blogger Blog to communicate with students, fellow teachers, and parents about interesting topics in History, Social Studies, and education. It is instant feedback when people post comments to your blog and opens the world of technology to find new resources. Try it out and see how easy it is to Blog! http://mskwilliams.blogspot.com

[Kristen Williams]

MORE ON BLOGGING- Borrowed from Sean Markwith, Science teacher and colleague
1. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
Free Technology for Teachers: The man that manages this blog is crazy with new posts all the time. (Articles being added) The blog has resources that are all free. The blog is laid out with the main content down the left side of the page, and the posts usually have a picture or some type of video to help understand the post better. Some videos are from YouTube, so they will be blocked at school.

2. http://suewaters.com/
Sue Waters Blog: This blog is based out of Australia, fun little fact. Down the right side of the blog you can find a location called “Things I Write About” this is a great place to start to see if you can find an interest in her blog. She likes to go into details about the subject that she is covering in the post.

3. http://www.classroominthecloud.net/
Classroom in the Cloud: What a title for a blog, you can take that title in so many different directions. This one is from a middle school teacher, this man teaches English in NY. This blog is new, only about a year old and he is just trying to help teacher by sharing his classroom experiences.

4. http://mscofino.edublogs.org/
Always Learning: This lady is always learning, and she has quite a resume. She has taught in many different countries, not that makes her any better. The different perspective she can bring to education is what makes her blog unique. Her main focus in her posts is to get you to think about education and the ways in which it is changing.

5. http://ideasandthoughts.org/
Ideas and Thoughts: This blog is ideas and thought about a man that is in education in the area of technology. He does rant sometimes ok most of the time, about what is wrong with education or how things need to change. It is just nice to hear what other people are doing in the classroom and what obstacles he is facing.

6. http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/
The Blue Skunk Blog: “Leaving readers confusing at a higher level since 2005” is the byline of the blog. Check this one out.

If you are interested in getting your feet wet about technology, look over some of these blogs. You may be able to bring something new to your classroom, your school, or even the county. We are teachers that ask students to learn daily about subject they are not interested in and cannot see the big picture. So why not step outside yourself and try find something new to you.

[Susan McClements]

My students in my Survey of Computer Apps (Bethel College) use blogs to write about all the new Web 2.0 apps we are discussing in class. I also post articles on the class wiki and the students write responses in their blogs. The students also comment on fellow classmates' blogs. For all of my students, blogging was a new skill. Here is a link to my computer applications blog for another course I teach: capp130.blogspot.com. When having students create blogs as a class assignment, you really need to use an RSS app such as Bloglines or GoogleReader to manage the new posts.