Blogging – I love that word, don’t you? According to Yahoo answers the first blogs emerged during 1997 and the Spring of 1999. Online journal author Peter Merholz took Jorn Barger’s word ‘weblog’ and split it into the phrase ‘We blog.’ Soon after the word ‘Blog’ became shorthand for weblog. I am almost ashamed to admit this but I only really discovered blogging a decade later in 2009. What was I doing with my spare time before then?
I caught up fast though, quickly discovering the joys of reading other blogs and of realising that I was not alone in the classroom. I learnt new things, I explored new tools, I made new friends. I also experienced the power of receiving positive feedback, from my own personal reflections. It was only natural that I became keen to bring this tool into my classroom, so my students could experience it too.
After checking out a few platforms I decided to sign up to edublogs. It seemed to me that using a tool which in many ways positioned itself at students, was the way to go for a novice blogger like me. So in January, I took the plunge, signed up and off we went. The experience has not always been easy, life in Year 5 is busy, blogging adds a whole new dimension to our day and our (my co-teacher and myself’s) workload. It has though been an overwhelmingly positive move.
Edublogs have been amazing, I really do not know how Sue manages it. Most of the time I have used their excellent help section for advice and on the couple of occasions when I could not work things out, help has been simply an email away. The edublogs class and student challenge also helped give meaning to some of our posts. Although, I have to admit, we are running a little behind on our tasks.
If you read other class blogs you will note that different teachers seem to have different uses for their blogs. Obviously other schools and countries have different ideas or guidelines on what is appropriate to place on the Internet in terms of privacy. So there are some blogs with many photos of their students and some with none. Others are used in much the same way as a moodle site with extensive links and lists of homework tasks etc. Taking it slowly we decided to start with weekly messages. Some of these showcase our students work, others reflect on our learning and some are just set as a homework task. Slipped into that mix are a few entries in the challenge, so filling posts has never been a problem.
What has been really interesting though, is our student’s enjoyment and engagement with the process. After several weeks of just commenting, I recently allowed several of them to set up their own blogs. I have linked these through to our class blog. The writing they are completing and the reading and commenting they are engaged in, is almost entirely in their free time. Without them even realising it, many of them are communicating around the world in an excitingly, new and authentic way.
So what do I see happening and why is it worth doing? I see reluctant writers, commenting almost daily. I see friendships being forged outside of the classroom. I see some of my more quirky individuals expressing themselves in new and creative ways. I see amazing peer tutoring in problem solving. I see some of the shyer ones opening up to others around the world. Real life learning about cyber safety, on-line protocol, creative commons, plagiarism and more is occurring in a real life context for my Year 5 students every single day.
Check us out: year5rc, after all that all important flag counter needs more flags!
Check these other examples too.
The Blogdogs – Mitch Squires doing great things with his Year 3 class also in Sydney.
Room 13 – Pam Thompson and her Year 6/7 class in South Australia. Pam’s blog is full of fabulous entries and interesting links.
Miss T’s classroom – Ms Trask’s Year 5 class in New Zealand who we Skyped with a few weeks ago, to great excitement.
Blogging is not for everyone, not all of my class were interested, not all of the parents would allow it, but for those that are the rewards are immense. Yes it can be an effort, and not easy to set up, but if you are prepared to meet the challenge, it can be done and you and your students will be so much the better for it.
6 Comments
Hi Henrietta,
Interesting to read your post about blogging. Yes, it certainly is not for everyone, however when conducted thoughtfully and carefully (and consistently) it can make a difference to student engagement as we have found with http://yr6leadership.edublogs.org/
In our context, I have found that choosing a few classes who were more likely to take to the blogging concept (along with teachers who were willing to take a risk and stick with it), and then building this into the program regularly has made a difference. One class will follow their blogging experience throughout Year 6, while with another we may only do it for 2 terms.
Another challenge is the all-important embedding of digital citizenship issues and information literacy. These issues have been much easier to contextualise when using the blog (in cooperation with Twitter @Yr6Leadership and a Wallwisher page).
Although experimental at this stage, finding the right balance which takes all of the variables of a busy school calendar into account, can be tough. It’s well worth it though when you see how incredibly engaged the students are during these lessons exploring social media and blog publishing.
One thing is for sure: if we don’t take these opportunities to embed digital citizenship and cyber-awareness into our teaching, then where will students be learning how to safely and appropriately navigate technology in the future when they leave school? They aren’t receiving this instruction at home or from their peers necessarily, so that leaves school to do the informing. This is where blogging and other Web 2.0 utilities offer students the best hope to becoming knowledgeable digital citizens of the future.
Mira Danon-Baird
@mdanonbaird
It’s wonderful to read about young learners embracing blogging as a way to communicate with an audience. I love it too. It has given me so many opportunities for learning and introduced me to wonderful new friends. The 5rc blog is looking good and I do like the class pet!
Blogging with students is such a powerful experience. I get to know my students on a more personal level and connect with them in new ways since we have started blogging. Because I teach elementary students, I needed a blog platform that was only open to other students and teachers at CHC, I have used Think.com with my students for almost 7 years now and every year I am so glad that I took the time to set them up and teach them how to blog. It has been a valuable experience for the students, but I have also found it to be very valuable. I am learning so much about my students and how they learn. It has made me a better teacher for them.
Your blog is looking wonderful, I look forward to showing my students what other students are blogging about. Thanks!
Thanks for your nice words and yes sometimes it is an interesting balancing act but fortunately I have a very patient family who are used to it.
Also excellent to hear how much your students are gaining from blogging!
When blogging is done well what you’ve observed regarding reluctant writers, individuals expressing themselves, helping each other and real life learning are what makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks again for kind words!
@Mira Danon-Baird Are you aware you can embed your Wallwisher? Or would you like the instructions for how?
Thanks for the mention Henrietta. Blogging has been an interesting experience for me too. this is the 3rd year I’ve had a class blog and different students approach it in different ways (parents too). most of them love it and really look forward to having their own blogs. Some of them find it difficult to keep up the momentum and post regularly (a bit like some of our teachers). I just think it’s a great way for the students to have an authentic audience and to realise that it isn’t all about me and what I think. We have also made some interesting connections through our blog, which has been exciting and inspiring.
Thanks for mentioning the student and class blogging challenge. We have now run this for four seasons but it doesn’t matter if you are behind in the challenges. The important part is having a go and learning from those challenges you do complete.
I actually started the challenge with Sue Waters back in 2008 when I wanted the students in my class to realise there is a wider audience to their writing than just the other students in our class.
It amazes me every season when we run a new set of challenges as to how many students and classes register for the activities.