Blogging: My story - Alia seminar workshop presentation August 20, 2016

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Blogging My story Hi, my name is Tania Sheko As part of blogging adventures at Melbourne High School Library

Transcript of Blogging: My story - Alia seminar workshop presentation August 20, 2016

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BloggingMy story

Hi, my name is Tania Sheko

As part of blogging adventures at Melbourne High School Library

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Focus: 4 Melbourne High School library blogs Library blog https://melbhslibrary.wordpress.com/

Art blog http://artdoesmatter.tumblr.com/

English blog with Amanda Carroll and her 10C English class

https://mhsenglish10c.wordpress.com/

Writing Interest Group student blog

https://unicornexpressmhs.wordpress.com/

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Art does matter

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Why did I choose tumblr for the art blog?

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● No title needed● Not much text● Hyperlink so readers

can find out more● Easy and quick to

insert media● Easy to post

regularly/quickly

Tumblr suited all my needs:

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Purpose: to provide regular, diverse visual prompts and interesting articles/ideas for students and teachers

Here’s what Brian Dettmer makes using old video cassettes.See his work on Flickr.

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Links to Flickr albums!

Opportunity to delve deeper (differentiated learning)

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Art blog - evolutionI expanded it to include design/illustration for Viscom

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Examples of art/illustration/design and artists/designers from Computer Arts magazine, later added to Libguides with links to social media. Students can follow these artists/designers and get daily feeds of their work.

Take the content out of the magazine and put it somewhere it will be seen.

Blog + Libguides = partnership

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Writing Interest Group (WIG) blog

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Why blog?● To give students a readership, both within the school and globally, to inspire them to write,

knowing that someone will read ● They read each others’ writing - this is not a given!● It’s encouraging to receive a comment - from peers, from outside world, from another country,

from an author!● Teach students how to add categories, tags (digital literacy); how to enhance the post with an

image (visual literacy)● To write outside of writing for your teacher for a mark. Writing for the love of it.● Statistics - students get a thrill when they see how many people have read their posts - great

numbers!● I encourage them to also post works in progress for feedback (lesson for perfectionists)● Encourage all writing genres - non-fiction and fiction, different types of poetry, opinion pieces,

etc.● The blog is a communal space for the group ● It continues to exist after students leave the school (eg. Nathan Nguyen’s ‘Procrastination is

the thief of time’.)

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Statistics = interesting data

Ex-student, Nathan Nguyen, wrote a post in June 2012. It is still the most popular post on the blog. Why?

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Comment outside the school (adult)

There’s a staccato rhythm to your story that really drew me in. Short bursts. Quick lines. I was in the head of the narrator before I even realized it. Keep working on developing the details of the story and of your character! This story is off to a fine start, Bernard!

Mr. Hodgson

USA

Student writing has been validated by an adult who took the time to read and leave thoughtful comment.

Opportunity for real dialogue

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Student comments = sharing reflectionAbsolutely. Boxing is too violent to be classify as a sport. It is a direct bodily harm which carries a long term effect. It is as bad as dog fight and cock fight. Boxing is a primitive form of gladiator. It is inhumane.

For women, thanks to sexism in boxing, it is a gain not a loss for female gender.

How do we organize together to ban boxing as a sport? We also need to educate boxers too that the consequence to their health can be devastating.

Muhammad Ali can never be a healthy man again. Perhaps, he can be a spokesperson who leads the effort to ban boxing.

Students appreciate feedback from their peers.

Thoughtful responses confirm the student’s writing.

Authentic readership - beyond teacher reading for a mark.

Photo source: tumblr

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Comments need to be approved by me before being published.

(Make sure there’s nothing bad there)

Photo source: giphy

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Our library blog!

(Going strong since September 2011)

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MHS library blog started off as a traditional library blog, sharing book reviews, interviews with people in the school community reading, events in the library.

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Then, one day...

I decided to broaden its purpose and audience, adding subtitle: Window to the school

Image from page 88 of "East of the sun and west of the moon : old tales from the North" (1922) Source: Internet Archive

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We don’t want to be a separate entity - ‘the Library’.

We want to be integrated with the school.

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The blog can reflect this and help us draw in students, teachers by featuring what’s happening in the school.

The blog offers the school an opportunity to share what’s happening to a wide audience.

Sculpture by Gerard Collas

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Introduction to Slam Poetry for year 9s

English teachers demonstrate slam poetry by performing unseen poems - judged by student panel

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When one of our teachers was involved in something awesome...

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Drawing on the furniture - What’s happening in Art classes

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Feature new resources in our Libguides

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Share posts from the MHS Philosophy blog

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This year I created an MHS library Instagram account for quick sharing of photos - what’s happening in the library and around the school.

Instagram also promotes the blog url. Blog is for when we have more to share, something to write about. Instagram is perfect for daily snaps to share.

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MHS library follows on Instagram:

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English class blog

This year I experimented with a different approach.

Aim: The blog evolves along with the class according to the needs of the teacher/students.

Result: Trust and true partnership; the teacher takes ownership of the blog with me as support.

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Blog in collaboration with English teacher

https://mhsenglish10c.wordpress.com/

● Thinking about how to add real value to what the teacher is already doing● Not forcing, selling ● Suggesting, showing options, resourcing and creating● Experiment: Piggyback one English class● At this stage I am not sure what will happen and how I will collaborate with the teacher (risk)

What happens:● I observe the teacher who is fantastic● I get a feel for her teaching style and expectations of the students● I get to know the students/cohort● I don’t want to just push an add-on in terms of technology● I don’t want to be associated only with technology ● I want to assist the teacher and enhance what she is already doing● I want to empower the teacher with new technology if she chooses it● I want the teacher to ‘own’ the blog

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What happens next - (Stage 1)

● I create a blog

● I take notes during the lesson and add to a blog post

● I enhance the content with pictures, background information hyperlinked to further information

● The added information and hyperlinks create an opportunity for differentiation

● The teacher sees the value and potential of the blog

● She asks me to add specific things (images, background info., thematic articles)

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Results:

● She writes her own posts, adding images/videos/hyperlinks

● She is excited! She is able to say more, show more, than she has the time to do in class.

● She finds her voice in the blog after initially feeling self conscious and worrying about perfect writing. She’s on a roll!

● The posts are vibrant, engaging, urging the students to look beyond the superficial, adding wit and humour, alluding to popular culture, real life situations (for Shakespeare or poetry, for example).

● She realises she is creating an enhanced ‘textbook’ which she can reuse/edit.

● The teacher has taken ownership of the blog. Mission accomplished!

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Stage 2We discuss whether students would post on the class blog/teacher’s blog or have their own.

If students posting to class blog - all posts mixed up; sense of community

If students own their personal blog - they are embedded in class blog.

Decision: The teacher wants them to have their own blog.

We had discussed the importance of students having their own space, identity, where they personalise their blog via title, header, style, etc.

I link the student blogs in the right hand navigation of the class blog.

Now the students can also read each others’ posts.

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Teacher understands the value of the blog because:

● it enhances her ‘teaching’ beyond the classroom

● provides a space to share all the interesting extra and quirky things, which expands the way students see the teacher

● It differentiates the learning possibilities - so interested students can follow the links to further reading/videos

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Where to from here?

I mention to the teacher that it would be awesome if she could vlog!!

(I say it would all just pour out of her, the immediacy of her face, her voice, not as carefully structured as the blog post.)

Students watch videos a lot; another way to get through to them, to inspire them, to make them want to know more.

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Got blogs, what now?

Freddie Mercury in a banana wig (Source)

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Share and promote!

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We promote all our social media sites on the front page of our Libguides.

Twitter and Instagram promoted as feeds on blog

Instagram links to library blog

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SHARE!!! Or it won’t be found

Think about readers:

● Students● Teachers● School community● Local school libraries and library staff● International ● non-library

Photo source: Pinterest

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How/where?

● school newsletter and LMS

● teachers via email (for specific posts and needs)

● Twitter, Facebook (and groups), Google+, Scoop.it, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

● our Libguides Photo source: Andy Sowards

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Of course it works best when you:

● Use hashtags to find relevant reading audience

#vicpln #austl #engchat #clmooc

● Have an active, personalised network - people you interact with so they’re more likely to follow your blogs

Photo source

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Share and connect with others online!

● Write posts/share ideas/comment on others’ posts

● Feature all the good things you do and see in the library, then go out into the school and do the same.

● Find other libraries (secondary, academic, etc.) and connect with them.

Connections make everything better!

Photo source: The Guardian

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What do you think you could do with blogs?

Henri Matisse in his studio at the age of 83, 1953 (Source: Artist and Studio)