Will the Real Bloggers Please Step Forward?

In my very, very humble opinion, the media has given blogging a pretty bad name. I TOTALLY understand educators' concerns based on the information we get from our average media resources - newspapers, TV, etc. Anymore, when people hear the word blog, they think pedofile. When that's all the information we get, what are we supposed to think - right?

Here's the good news. These scary, nasty people are not the real bloggers (or at least not ALL of them). There are still some good, interesting people in the world.

I wanted to share this "bright spot" in my day! I ran across a study (thanks to Wesley Fryer's article on the MTI2006 wiki) by Pew Internet and American Life Project titled Bloggers: A portrait of the internet's new storytellers, published on 7/19/06.

Here's a taste of what they have to say. Read the rest by clicking on the title above:

Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world.
A telephone survey of a nationally-representative sample of bloggers has found that blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world. Some 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere. While generally youthful, these writers otherwise represent a broad demographic spectrum of people who cite a variety of topics and motives for their blogging.
Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.

Just sharin' - comments?
Thanks!
Lee Anne

New Podcast

Lee Anne Morris is in Boston learning all kinds of new technologies to incorporate into classes on The Eighth Floor. Way to go, Lee Anne!

One of the technologies we are interested in because of the classroom application is podcasting. This is a test of an online podcast website and the result.

Take a listen then check out the website (odeo.com) for yourself:

powered by ODEO

What About Blogs? July 2006

Hello fellow bloggers!

Now that you have had an opportunity to look at several different types of blogs out there, what do you think?

Create a comment on this posting that discusses what you may have discovered, new ideas you now have, a blog you thought was particularly great, or questions you may still have.

Be sure to read other posts and make comments to them if you'd like.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Made for Classroom Blogging

Classblogmeister is a free blog host that was designed by a teacher (David Warlick) for teachers. http://classblogmeister.com/

You might also be interested in David's blog for educators 2 Cents Worth.

What Mark Ahlness said in his blog edtechblog about Classblogmieister:

So here's my testimonial, my sales pitch for Classblogmeister. First, it's not blocked. Next, it offers TOTAL teacher approval before any student post or comment on a student post (take that, MySpace fear mongers). Teachers can leave online feedback for students to improve their writing (like if they want to get it published) that is hidden from public view. Next, it's free (thanks to David W's generosity). It also has a very active list on Yahoo! Groups for sharing and problem solving. Last, I have never, in 25 years of teaching, seen a more powerful classroom tool for motivating students to write. Nothing else even comes close. It is the perfect blogging tool for teachers.

When is Blogging Learning??????

I just read a blog entry by Konrad Glogowski in his Blog of Proximal Development. He shares some great observations about his 8th grade bloggers. He describes their development and how they became true learners in their own blogging community.

The students became involved in what Carl Bereiter has termed progressive discourse (1994). Sharing, questioning, and revising of opinions helped students develop a strong understanding of the given topic. They were engaged in intentional learning(Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1994), an active, purposeful search for meaning.

Textbooky words, but exactly the magic we WORK to make happen. It is still an amazement to me (should I admit this?) how learning happens. I love it when it suddenly happens, when it is authentic. Even though I've put a lot of time and effort into the learning stuff, I am still surprised when my students engage. (I love that about my job - it's like knocking on a door for hours and being surprised when someone opens it.) So, as a teacher I often feel like both the magician and the audience. NO, I don't mean I'm impressed by my own classroom tricks, I'm oooohing and awing at what students will sometimes pull out of their hats. Konrad describes in his posting how and when and why this kind of learning happened with his students. What I like is that he shares the MANY steps and contributions he made to make this magic learning happen.

But then, about two months ago, there was a sudden shift. The community took on a life of its own. Imagine a place where students start with a literary text and then, rather than spend most of their time responding to literature, they are given opportunities to explore the relevance of this text in the world around them. . . . Granted, it did not happen automatically. I did quite a bit of facilitating and guiding. I wrote about some of these topics on my own teacher blog within the class blogosphere. I took time to talk to each individual writer. I commented extensively on their work. I used my own blog to link to many entries, to show my students the connections between many individual posts. I suggested electronic and print resources. I talked about their work in class. We discussed individual entries.

Check out the entire posting and the comments that follow.

Podcasting Tutorials

This list of podcasting tutorials is a product of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. If you are interested in podcasting, you'll be interested in this list.

AND . . . if you are intersted in podcasting, you'll be interested in the class we offer on the Eighth Floor, Podcasting: Hype or Help?

What About Blogs - June 2006

We thought the participants in our June course, What About Blogs? might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of social networking.

As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs are finding their place in education. Many teachers use them on a professional level. Two that I read on a regular basis are, first, Will Richardson’s blog Webblogg-ed . We like Will’s blog so much, and the book he just released, that we have invited him to do a workshop on blogs, wikis, and other cool tools for the Eighth Floor this coming October. You really won’t want to miss this. The second blog I read often is Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer. Good news! Wesley Fryer just took a position in OKC, and since he will be "local," we hope to invite him to the Eighth Floor as well - stay tuned. There are many, many others. Although it is impossible to read them all, you will probably find a few you go to over and over.

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students. A couple of classroom blogs might want to look at are Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom . You have to check out the journals on the Oregon Trail. Also, take a look at SAS China . This is a website at an overseas American school that is run by two instructors in different disciplines, and their blog is part of their website. The work the students do in both classes is quite impressive and sometimes pretty funny.

There has been much discussion lately regarding the safety of student blogs. Internet safety is an important issue that we should all be helping our students understand and deal with. A couple of blog posts you will find interesting on this topic are MySpace Education, on Wesley Fryer’s blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity and Stephanie Sandifer’s blog Change Agency .

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom.

Here are some questions to get you started thinking:
- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.

Post comments by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

If you are interested, check out the February 17th posting on the 8th Floor Blog called “What About Blogs?” and read some of the comments made by the last class.

FREE Software - ThinkFree.com Provides Free "Office-like" Web Services

If you are in the market for free software, you may already know about this site. Just in case, I thought I'd pass this information along. In Wesley Fryer's blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, he discusses the ThinkFree software and provides links to several articles and reviews. Check out his post, ThinkFree Challengs MS Office Dominance.

If you have anything to share regarding this software or others, please do.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

"What About Blogs?" - May 2006

We thought the participants in our May course, What About Blogs? might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of social networking.

As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs are finding their place in education. Many teachers use them on a professional level. Two that I read on a regular basis are, first, Will Richardson’s blog Webblogg-ed . We like Will’s blog so much, and the book he just released, that we have invited him to do a workshop on blogs, wikis, and other cool tools for the Eighth Floor this coming October. You really won’t want to miss this. The second blog I read often is Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer. There are many, many others. Although it is impossible to read them all, you will probably find a few you go to over and over.

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students. You might want to look at are Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom . You have to check out the journals on the Oregon Trail. Also, take a look at SAS China . This is a website at an overseas American school that is run by two instructors in different disciplines, and their blog is part of their website. The work the students do in both classes is quite impressive.

There has been much discussion lately regarding the safety of student blogs. Internet safety is an important issue that we should all be helping our students understand and deal with. A couple of blog posts you might find interesting on this topic are MySpace Education, on Wesley Fryer’s blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity and Stephanie Sandifer’s blog Change Agency .

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom. Here are some questions to get you started thinking:

- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.

Post comments by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

If you are interested, check out the February 17th posting on the 8th Floor Blog called “What About Blogs?” and read some of the comments made by the last class.

The Eighth Floor's Podcast about Blogs

Over the next several months, we will be "broadcasting" podcasts that highlight new technologies for the classroom. The first podcast looks at blogs: what they are, how difficult (or simple) the technology is and how blogs are used in the classroom.
Check it out by clicking on the link below!
Pam Vreeland


8th Floor Podcast-Blogs


The music is thanks to Internet Archives, an internet website publishing open source music, and Korhan Kaya, the artist making the music available.