Blog
What is Blogging?
So, you have heard the word blog, but you aren’t really sure what it means and how it relates to education. A blog stands for a weblog, which is a site published on the Internet and consists of discrete posts displayed in reverse chronological order (most recent posts are at the top). Blogs are usually textual, but can have images, videos, or other types of files. Instead of just turning in a paper to the teacher or reflecting on learning, bloggers can have a global audience, in which they can interact with their audience through comments. Bloggers are able to tell their story!
Ways to Use Blogging in Teaching and Learning
Blogging can be used as a place to collect and share thoughts on various topics. George Couros, principal for Parkland School Division, sums up the importance of blogging in this post. There are many different platforms for blogging and this is an activity learners of all ages can do. You can keep blogs as private or as public as you would like through settings. To get people to comment on your blogs, you can add your link in your Twitter feed with the hashtag#comments4kids. This would also be a great place for your students to explore some other kids’ blogs and comment before your students start writing their own blogs. This will help them in seeing important elements and writing components needed while blogging.
Elementary Blog Platforms:
(Yes, even kindergarten students can blog. It shows a great growth in their writing skills throughout the year. One of my friends used Kidlog with her kinders and did not edit the posts of her kids. She would translate in the comments if their were completely unlegible.)
Middle School and High School Platforms:
Blogger Blogger is already integrated with students’ email. They can add blogger as an app in Google Chrome
Word Press is a lot more cumbersome but creates some amazing looking blogs. I have used Word Press for this site, but again, there is a large learning curve.
Wix is a more visual looking blog/website, but would be great for an art portfolio.
Common Core Integration
Blogging supports the ELA Reading Anchor Standards, and more. It can be used to integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. Blogging allows us to provide opportunities for communicating ideas and solutions to the outside world. There is a whole chapter from The Next Digital Scholar about the relationship of blogging to the common core standards.
Earn Your Badge!
Create a blog or have your students create a blog. Add a link to the blog in the submission area. Please let us know if your blog is private or public so we know if we can share your blogs.