SummercoreLearning2008

From a responsible “commenter“:

A free exchange of ideas is important. At the same time, words or access to some information can be of harm to others, intentionally or unintentionally. As a commenter, I therefore aspire to participate responsibly in the great online conversation by:

* treating all bloggers with respect.

* seeking first to understand what is being said.

* celebrating another’s accomplishments.

* using school appropriate language.

* rephrasing ideas in the blog that made me think, made me feel, or helped me learn to let the blogger know his/her voice has been heard.

* commenting specifically and positively, without criticism. If I disagree, I will comment appropriately, politely stating my perspective.

* being mindful always that I may be a role model to my audience, especially if they are younger than I.

* making no reference to, link to, and/or giving access to any information that may be inappropriate for a school setting.

* asking at least one question in my comment with the hopes of continuing a conversation and deepening thinking.

* using a triple check before submitting any comment: Would I be happy to have my mother read this comment? My grandmother? My favorite teacher?

Step One: Start Small
The more manageable it starts out, the more open everyone will be to adding more exciting pieces to the puzzle. One blog, one username, one password, one e-mail account – simple, simple, simple.

Step Two: Introduce the Project
Take several classes to introduce this project. Start with an adaptation of Anne Davis’ fantastic WebQuest: Blogging: It’s Elementary!

Lesson One
Read the ABC’s of Blogging blook in small groups or partners.Have each student pick a favorite letter and read only that page and then come together to discuss what everyone has learned. Then, create a class Inspiration mind map of the big ideas learned from the Blook – later, this will be posted on the class blog for commenting by students and parents.

Lesson Two
Take a look at some student blogs; start with the selection listed on the WebQuest. The focus will be figuring out the different parts of a blog – what are the pieces that make up a good blog (titles, posts, comments, date of entry, links, calendar, etc). Make sure students understand how to navigate a blog so that they can find their way around the partner class blogs when they’re ready.

Lesson Three
Discuss online safety and appropriate behavior. Use the Think Before You Post video. The first time around pause the video every few seconds to make sure the students understand what’s happening – there’s a lot going on in this video! Watch it a few times with pauses and a few times all the way through. This will lead to a discussion about what is safe to put online and a class guidelines for online safety – which should be posted on the class blog.

Next discuss appropriate behaviors online.Talk a little bit about cyber-bullying (video on cyber-bulling) so that the students understand that behavior expectations online are exactly the same as behavior expectations in class with the teacher present. Discuss how, when and where to share our feelings. Everything  discussed can be added to the Inspiration map at the end of the lesson.

Lesson Four
One more introductory lesson:experiment with learnerblogs by learning about the basics of posting (basic formatting, inserting images and links), the category function, and how to find their partner blogs. There will also be one teacher-written post for the entire class to comment on for the first step (this could be the post with the Inspiration map and class guidelines for online safety).

Step Three: Begin and Maintain a Routine
Once the introductory steps all mapped out – the students understand what’s happening, the teacher is comfortable with the technology tools, and the parents are all on board -  begin to blog regularly as part of the normal classroom routine. Making time once a week to read a partner class blog and leave comments is a great way to connect with other students on issues and ideas that they can relate to.

Step Four: Build
After a few months of writing, students should be ready to add in more exciting elements. Perhaps start some podcasting or some VoiceThread that the kids can share. This project can grow into something bigger over time. At the very least, it becomes an integral part of school-home communication and that parents, students and teachers see the value in this ongoing conversation about learning.

The ABCs of Blogging

Here is a comprehensive interactive tutorial on blogging by and for kids. It is the creation of 5th graders!  Below is the instructor’s explanation of this ambitious project and tremendous learning tool. A critical understanding for me is that kids need to be explicitly taught how to use blogs responsibly.

Introduction
This book was written by a group of fifth grade students from J. H. House Elementary school in Conyers, Georgia. I have worked with this group on a weblog project combining a group of ESL students and their native English-speaking classmates. Students developed their abilities as speakers, listeners, readers, writers, and thinkers using weblogs to write about topics of interest to them. You can view the class weblog at http://anvil.gsu.edu/wrinkles.

This book is a way for us to celebrate our learning journey. Students brainstormed words that came to their minds about blogging. Then they added idioms to the list. We had so much fun incorporating them into our writings on our weblogs.  See our “Idioms Are Fun” weblog located at http://anned.tblog.com.

I’d like to explain how we came up with the title “Our ABC Blook on Blogging.” One day as everyone was working diligently on our ABC Weblog book, Derrick came up with a great new word. The word is blook. He said we were making an ABC book on blogs so the name should be blook!  We all agreed and hence, the creative title.

Anne Davis
Instructional Technology Specialist
Instructional Technology Center
Georgia State University
adavis@gsu.edu