By: Amy Helms

• “Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging”- Don’ts 1,2, 3,4, and 5- And 1 do!- My Reflection

• “Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog”- What are the rules of engagement?- Guidelines to give to students- My Reflection

• “Exploring Educational Use of Blogs in U.S. Education”- How can a blog be used in Education?- Advantages of Using Educational Blogs- My Reflection

• Conclusion

“Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging”Don’ts 1,2,3,4, and 5

• 1. Don’t just dive in. -Give the students guidelines. This sets them up for success and

avoids problems.

• 2. Don’t confuse blogging with social networking.-Blogs are not a Myspace or Facebook. Blogs are for helping each

other with coursework and evaluating others’ materials.

• 3. Don’t leap at the freebies.-Make sure to use a program which offers structure for school districts.

Teachers need to have full control over the site.

• 4. Don’t force a sequential style.-Structure entries by topic rather than by time on the blog.

• 5. Don’t leave the blogging to the students.-As a teacher give feedback about opinions and blog posts. Learn to

understand the students and learn more about them through what they write.

“Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging”And 1 do!

• 1. DO recognize what blogging can do for your students!

-This means a multitude of things. Students feel as if they can open up on there. This helps them to become better writers. Blogs are a good technique from transitioning from paragraphs to essays.

-Blogging is more creative and exploratory for the students rather than pencil and paper. That is what intrigues them!

-DO give students time to explore on their own and see other examples.

“Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging”Reflection

• This article really made me think about the things that need to be done and do not need to be done to keep up a blog. One “a-ha” moment I had came from a teacher’s advice. She required that her students sign off on a code of conduct that gave strict rules such as no slander, foul language, or bullying. I think that this is a great idea. This way the students are also accountable for their actions. I noted another “a-ha” moment came whenever I read that they are not a place of socializing. They are a place for helping each other with coursework. I think this is important to monitor and keep in mind too. My final “a-ha” moment was when I realize that teachers have to actually plan what they want their students to blog. Also, a tip this article gave was to structure the entries by topic rather than time because this makes it easier to find older blogs if you are looking. I think that this is very helpful.

• One quote that left an impression on me was: “A blog becomes a community,” Davis says. “You get to know students in ways that they won’t reveal otherwise. A quiet child will give you her opinion [in a blog].”

“Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog”

What are the rules of engagement?

• Every unit of instruction should include standards, goals, and essential questions with corresponding understandings, knowledge, and skills.

• Everyone is required to participate and respond to others.

• The discussion needs to be teacher-student centered.

“Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog”Guidelines to Give to Students

• Provide posting guidelines based on criteria for that assignment.

• Provide HTML support for students having problems.

• Give priority to student commentary.

-This may stimulate students to post more.

• Involve students in summarizing and moderating discussion.

“Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog”

Reflection• I like this article because it makes you think more into blogging and how you could improve how it

works within a class. One “a-ha” moment I had was when I read was “If I had a classroom blog, everyone would be required to participate and respond to others. There is value in this. Stuart Glogoff (2005) found that without that requirement, a blog can easily be abandoned and die.” This made me realize that blogging can be very beneficial, but only if you do it in a correct way. If not, blogs could be a big failure and affect the students’ opinions about blogging in general. Another “a-ha” moment happened after I read the “guidelines” part of the article. If you do not have rules and guidelines, your classroom blog will be lost. Guidelines are an important part of having a blog. My last “a-ha” moment came from ethics part of the article. This made me realize how public blogs really are. It is our responsible as the teacher to regulate what is said on the blog. But also, we have to remember to respect their freedom of speech too. This is where it gets complicated.

• There was a quote from this article that I really liked. It was really helpful in understanding blogging.

• It is: “The blogosphere is filled with dangers--"misrepresenting opinion as fact, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, and newer trends, such as word of mouth marketing" (Kuhn, 2005, p. 5), and before entering that bigger world, you can use your classroom blog to do more than help students reach instructional goals. With good moderating, you can teach them the skills for monitoring their own online behaviors. In the end, ethical self-monitoring is what ensures that the blog is a vehicle of trusted content.”

“Exploring Educational Use of Blogs in U.S. Education”

How can a blog be used in Education?

• To communicate• Instructional Resources• Collaborative Tools• Showcases for Student Projects• Post Class Assignments• Post hyperlinks to help with

homework assignments.

“Exploring Educational Use of Blogs in U.S. Education”

Advantages of Using Educational Blogs

• Enhance learning for students.• They motivate students and foster

collaboration among learners.• Students can develop and express their

ideas and receive feedback from others.• Their posts can be updated and changed

easily.• Encourages critical thinking skills.

“Exploring Educational Use of Blogs in U.S. Education” Reflection

• This article was very informative about blogs and their advantages and disadvantages. One “a-hah” moment I had came whenever it explained that blogging was better than a discussion board. This is because it is easy to use, create, and change. Also, after a course is over, the students can still go back to that blog. It gives them ownership over something. Another “a-ha” moment came whenever the article talked about how it is more than just reading and writing, it was about reading what is interesting to the audience. In this way it seems this could be the connection between traditional education and modern education. I thought that was neat. My last “a-ha” moment came when I read what educational blogs were called. They are called “EduBlogs.” This is when teachers use blogging as an educational resource for their classroom. I thought it was cool how they actually have a term for this now because of its rapid popularity.

• One quote that I thought was interesting was: “Rather than an information resource, blogging has changed the role of readers. Readers are no longer passive recipients of the information from the web but become creators of the content by either posting entries on the blog or making comments on the entries posted by others.”

Conclusion • Sturgeon, Julie. (2008). Five Don’ts of Classroom Blogging. Web 2.0, 1-5. Retrieved

from THE Journal database. • Deubel, Patricia. (2007). Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional

Blog. Web 2.0, 1-1. Retrieved from THE Journal database. • Hong, Wang. (2008). Exploring Educational Use of Blogs in U.S. Education. US-

China Education Review, 5(10), 1-5. Retrieved from the ERIC database.

These articles just show how big of an impact blogging can make in the educational world. They connect modern times with traditional ways of teaching and students seem to enjoy this more. I am eager to see what other new ways of teaching will emerge before I am a teacher. I want to integrate as much as possible. Technology is at our fingertips, why not use it to our advantage as teachers too?