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Learn to Blog : Blog to Learn

Anne Davis

I chose this presentation because of the blogging requirement for this class and I am very glad that I did. If you are confused about the relevance of blogging in the classroom, what a blogging project would look like, or how to set one up – then I would recommend this session to you!  

The presentation includes a webquest that is used to teach students about blogging and a blog that teachers whom she was introducing bogging to had used.  Both of the resources were very valuable to me!  The webquest posted is what the teacher would use to introduce her class to blogging.  It includes an introduction to blogging, a description of the task (or the objectives) that includes links to a class wiki page for each objective , a description of the process or the lesson that would introduce blogging, a rubric for evaluation of their blogs, a conclusion and credits.  The lessons included several features that I found informative or interesting.  A book published by another class about their own experiences of blogging, a link to a wiki page for safe and responsible blogging, examples of actual student blogs, and comment prompts to get students started commenting on their classmates blogs.  I myself learned a lot about blogging from these resources.

This version of Anne’s webquest also includes a Teacher Page that includes her lesson plan for teaching with the webquest.  The lesson described is designed for fifth grade students.  A document named the Six Traits of Writing and Bloom’s taxonomy are the focal points of the blogging process.  Students are encouraged to think and blog about what they are learning in class.  They will improve their writing skills as they practice thinking and expressing themselves by writing for their blogs and posting comments for their classmates.

Also part of this presentation is access to a class blog that was used to introduce educators to Blogmeister (sound familiar?)  It was interesting not only to read the content and the educator students responses, but also to see another group of adults learning how to do this blogging thing.  Included in this blog in a very helpful document – Rationale for Blogging. The third part of her presentation is a slide show about blogging – that introduces beginners to the vocabulary of blogging and to Blogmeister – the software that she uses for her students’ blogs.  Again – very helpful to me.

Choosing this presentation my not have been very much of  stretch – but I am glad that I took the time to explore all three parts of the presentation.  I learned a lot!

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