The blog I decided to look at with a critical eye today is “elementary teacher blog” (capitals left out to expose the guilty). I judged it according to the 4-section rubric given to us, as well as some notes based on the criteria that went with today’s reading / viewing. Content I give it a […]
Continue reading Day 3… the Day of Blog Reckoning Posted in: Week 07: Blogs How have I used blogging as an educator? It’s not useful for me for class management. I teach in a small school, with a relatively small number of students. Two or three classes don’t spark a need for me to manage them online – it would just be more work in my case. I could […]
Continue reading Day 2’s post – blog use as a teacher/student Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Hi,
I think you hit on a good point in discussing how some students really enjoy it and others don’t. Hopefully, as managing students with technology improves (less time-consuming, more time-producing ?) we can allow students to produce their assignments using the formats of their choosing.
Also, totally agree on the discussion being hard to follow in this format. This is my second MET course I’ve done on wordpress, and it hasn’t improved any on that front. With this format, it seems like once the week is done, there is no looking back. Just like dropping your keys into a pile of lava, we just need to let it go 😉
Emily
Ha! I totally agree about this WordPress environment. I am OCD enough to find the linear flow of posts and comments “messy”. I thought I disliked the Vista environment that most of the other ETEC courses have been hosted in, but now agree with you, Stephen, that threaded comments are easier to follow. I have been using the Manage Posts and Manage Comments menus, but am still not sold on this format for a wide variety of blog content, even when it is categorized and tagged. Call me old-fashioned…!
I am glad that you brought up that there wasn’t a real need for you to use blogs in your class. I know that we are in a technology program, but I find that we often neglect to discuss those times where there really isn’t a need to incorporate technology. If your class sizes are small enough, you may get enough discussion and collaboration through classroom discussions.
I also find it very interesting that the high achieving students don’t seem to like blogging whereas the student who has an IEP did well. It is really amazing how some students like the opportunity to have their work published, while some students just don’t respond to it.
Juliana.
I agree that not all students like blogging, nor does blogging work in all circumstances – but I do think that your use of blogs as portfolios could be very valuable – why keep a box of your school work in the basement for some future reference when you can keep it online for much easier access?
I agree with you on discussion and posting. I also prefer bulletin/message board style just like Vista Blackboard. Blogs are more ideal for instructions and articles. If a reader wants to leave comments on what he/she thinks about articles, then blogs are better. But for courses like the ones in MET program, the message board style is more ideal. This one is my first blog-based course as well and it took a bit of time to get used to it. I still prefer Vista Blackboard.
Deb
I am not a teacher but I do get the opportunity to teach people how to use technology in my work. In a classroom scenario, knowing that security and rights issues always come up, my first step would be to review the school board’s online policy if any and ensure that the blogging activities guidelines […]
Continue reading Blogs for classroom discuss and group projects Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Thanks for your thoughtful insights on blogging! I really enjoyed reading through your blog and learning your goals on how you would use blogs in the classroom. I agree with your points, as well as your reasons for using different kinds of blogs. I have the same bias as you, wordpress was my first blogging experience so I feel confident while using it!!
Thanks for your pst!
Jenaca
Thanks Janeca,
I am glad you enjoyed reading my post. Word press was my first experience at blogging editor. Prior to that Yahoo would have been my first experience as a commentator only I didn’t realise then that it was called blogging 🙂 I have had a good experience with WordPress. I enjoy creating eportfolios with it, though they are all private and I have only comments from course mates.
Hi,
I like your strategy for immersing the students into the www step by step. Start private, then slowly branch out. Very sound.
Emily
Thanks Emily,
I believe that an online strategy is key in order to navigate any potential security and rights issues as he teacher’s job also includes the safety of her students.
Hi ifeoma,
I like you post. I think your suggested goals for using the blog in the classroom are very useful and I intend to use those goals for my classroom.
Ifeoma,
I like your goals for blogging.
I was also worried about my students’ names and information being exposed to strangers. As WordPress has a function that can mark my blog private and only allow people who I give permission to see my blog, I told my students to create their username on WP. My blog is only visible to the users (my students) that I’ve added. Just in case parents want to see it, I created a username and password for parents so that they can share among them. Parents share one username and password. That’s one of the great features that I like about WP – good for keeping privacy.
Deb
Once I returned from Japan, where my wife and another friend started blogging and showing me the ropes, I began my Bachelor of Education at UBC.  Not only did each teacher candidate have to figure out WordPress for our e-portfolio by the end of the program, but I was hired by the Teacher Education Office as […]
Continue reading e-Coaching and The Pedagog Blog Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Thanks for your insights! Sending out the invitations individually? Wow! That must have taken a while. You probably would have lots to say on this, but is there anything that the blogging platforms could have done to improve their usability? Also, do you think that the blogging endeavour was successful? Did many people start intereacting on the blogs?
Juliana.
Hi Juliana,
When I think about the repetitive task of inviting classmates to blog, I think of the stories about a young Bill Gates at Harvard with all those IBM punchcards – the longer you perform any task (10000 hours seems to be the magical number) the closer you become to being an expert at it. Similar to the design wiki for ETEC 510, the more practice you get typing out HTM instead of using copy & paste, the easier web design becomes.
For the Pedagog Blog, still in use for the most recent EDUC 420, I’m sure cloud computing will make a difference. It would have been one way to improve upon weekly posts and discussion threads if it were easier to respond on any device. I am quite pleased that our ETEC 522 blog shows up nicely on my iPhone, even uses the red-circled numbers to let me know how many new responses a post received. As much as I miss being in a lecture hall hearing classmates discuss a topic, I noticed with the Pedagog Blog there were more students willing to contradict others (politely) on-line, which makes for a far more lively discussion.
I look forward to reading more of your team’s ideas on blogging – are we supposed to go through AdVentures in Blogging day by day, meaning that Tuesday will be the only time to discuss Use of Blogs?
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
You can participate in one discussion topic + the “blog market” topic. We decided to give everyone a choice of the discussion topic (ie. day 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) that they wanted to participate in, but we did want everyone to participate in the “Blog Market” discussion topic, which talks about what needs to be done to move blogs from good to great.
We decided to split the topics up by days, but you do not need to be restricted by the schedule. If you would like to move on ahead, please feel free.
Juliana.
So do you prefer wikis to blogs? I hear mixed opinions on this!
Wikis to blogs… I’d like to hear your opinion as well, Kyle. 🙂
Deb
Hi Brenda and Deb,
If the whole class is on-board and willing to mix things up with the way they learn, wikis can be fun, but can also be like getting blood from a stone if the class isn’t into them. I prefer blogs for their personal, presentational aspect; ideal for student-centered projects.
How ’bout youse?
Kyle
I can definately relate to the blood from a stone comment on the wikis!
I agree with you that blogs are ideal for student-centered projects, but it’s also ideal for class discussions just like Wiki.
I wonder if Wiki can be ideal for both student-centered projects and class discussions.
Deb
I’ve blogged on and off since 2004. I had a blogger blog – which I kept anonymously – for about 3.5 years, and recently started up a sewing blog on WordPress. I chose WordPress for strategic reasons; Blogger tends to be used strictly for personal blogs, while WordPress has much broader enterprise-level applications. I’m learning […]
Continue reading “Allie” is a pseudonym: Blogs, Privacy, Kindness (or not!) and lifelong learning Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Hi Allie, or… ummm…
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on blogging and anonymity. On the one hand, people should be able to maintain control over their image and identity, especially as anyone from around the world can use your opinions, preferences or personal information to one’s own advantage, which you may have unwittingly provided. Yet on the other hand, isn’t the anonymity of the Internet a cause of misinterpretation and even cyberbullying? You seem like a very engaging educator with a passion for sewing and architecture, but now knowing that “you” are not Allie leads me to wonder how much of your identity is also pseudo. Not to sound like someone from the older “paranoid” generation, but how much do we know about Tasia, Sunni or Gertie, the three sewist you hyperlinked, from their blogs. Gets to be like the 2010 movie Catfish. Sharing talents and interests on the Internet should be encouraged, and the more that others can find out about the bloggers, the better, or to adapt the line from Twelfth Night “is it a web to hide virtues in?” (I, iii, 124)
For my first assignment, I needed to make use of the blogs and Second Life creations of someone with the pseudonym Ina Centaur. While she was up-front with her assumed identity, even blogging her biography without giving away too much personal information, I found it frustrating that I could not get any second-hand information on her. The project that she worked on had so much personal investment, that it is too bad that there was no other reliable source of information on her. For students learning the ropes of web communities, yes, there should be a certain level of privacy involved, yet for someone like “Ina” who needs funding so that her project should know better than to usurp herself in anonymity: “for what is yours to bestow is not yours to reserve.” (I, v, 181)
Kyle
Hello “Allie” 😉
Thank you for bringing up the issues of anonymity and security. I agree that you do need to be cautious about putting information up on the internet, especially if you are a minor. And it can be especially irritating and even heart-breaking when the work that you publish gets copied and co-opted.
As you are mostly talking about blogging for personal use, what do you think needs to be put in place to make blogging platforms even better for personal use?
Juliana.
Allie…I have met my soul mate – I too am a sewer..in fact, I lived in front of my sewing machine making everything from my childrens’ clothes to several wedding dresses! I would love to view your blogs! I have to admit though that my machine is getting rusty from misuse due to the demands of my new job! What a great way to share your passion though, then through blogging – Time to share with other sewing fanatics out there!
Wow, Allie. Is it possible for you to share your sewing blog? I’d like to see it if you don’t mind as I like sewing too. 🙂
Internet privacy was also one of my biggest concerns when I started blogging for my students. However, for WordPress, there is a privay function that you can use for your blog privacy. You can mark your blog private and only allow people that you permit to see the blog.
Deb
I agree!! Is there any way you could share this blog:)? I also really enjoy sewing and would love to check your blog out!!
For me, I have always been very concerned with what information I post on the web and the privacy aspect that comes along with it. Once something is on the internet it can be used in anyway by anyone! This is a scary thought to me!!
Jenaca
Great post. You share stuff I find insightful and it’s a shame your anxiety causes you to shield your identity from us. I used to remain pretty strictly anonymous but I changed all that once I started doing research on anxiety management.
I realized that everyone is anxious and a person’s manner of communication really and truly had nothing to do with me, but was entirely a reflecting of their anxiety coping habits.
I also realized my communication habits were similarly driven. I’ve been encouraging some of my fellow students lately (in person) who have been feeling overwhelmed in their program. I suggest that they focus on expressing their individual value which is a function of their past experiences and their unique perspectives. The more little risks you take, the more positive experiences you will have, and the higher your confidence will be.
In person, when I’m not too tired, I can coax and coach the people around me. In the digital realm, it’s a little harder, particularly as there are so many voices around us all the time and we can misinterpret STRIDENCY for UBIQUITY. The more we chat around, the more we discover those strident voices are often in a minority and always reflect poor anxiety copying habits.
I make mistakes myself, sometimes being a little too aggressive or analytical during discourse, which can switch people off. I’m trying to develop better emotional intelligence in this regard to recognize when this is happening then switch into a quieter and more active listening mode.
In the last week I tried coaxing a couple of my classmates into accepting that they are personally awesome and to focus on their intrinsic motivations and wealth of experiences vs. chasing after extrinsic affirmations and feeling resentful at times at their lack of sense of control.
Allie,
Great post! I am a budding sewer! I took classes when I was young but haven’t had the time/room to sew for a while. I’ve recently hauled out my sewing machine and hope to keep it running! I’d love to follow your blog! I’ve seen many other sewing blogs but as you say it is different when you feel you have a connection with the blogger.
I also worry about privacy issues when working on the internet but I’ve never used a pseudonym and I was curious about your reasoning behind being so careful.
Hi Allie,
I found your post very insightful.You brought up some of the very real concerns that I have as well – anonymity, privacy and the very real reaction of real people. Thanks for sharing how you really felt when your blog posts were ‘dissed’. Now imagine if you were a teenager and had some self-esteem issues and had the same comments. People free much freer and liberal in sharing their ideas and thoughts (and some not so nice thoughts) when they know people do not know who they are. The not so nice side of people sometimes tends to come out. Children tend to be much more vulnerable and sensitvie to negative reactions (aren’t we all) and I lean towards the side of caution as I really feel people do not have the screening mechanism required to be able to determine what is really ‘safe’ out there. As well, I really find that people’s social skills are lacking when the majority of their ‘work’ and life is done online.
I would tend to agree with you that private spaces are the way to go if you intend to introduce these concepts into the classroom…at least in the beginning. Public domain and public opinion are not always a positive thing.
I am fascinated with blogging. Unfortunately, I am a person of few words. I am not sure if I have what it takes to be a great blogger. I use blogging for pleasure. I create online tutorials (mostly images and codes). But, I use Moodle (LMS) in all of my classes. Why? a) comfort […]
Continue reading Silent Blogger ? Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
schiong,
I too love Moodle and all its features. You mentioned wordpress and blogger. What do you usually do with these platforms? Do you use for example wordpress as a CMS? or it’s just for topical discussions?
Everton
Thanks for you post! I was curious how your students react to blogging after the HTML coding. What do they say?
You mentioned that your students often like to use Blogger. Can you offer any insights as to why this may be?
Looking forward to your response!
Juliana.
In my opinion, I still believe that a lot can be said with fewer words – especially if your blog includes graphics, videos, audio clips…some blogs that I have reviewed are mini-novels for some who maybe wish they were published authors? More effective to me to say what is needed more concisely – Is there another tool rather than blogging that you would prefer?
Hi Schiong,
You may be a person of a few words, but it does look like Moodle has given you a voice 😉
Moodle does have some good features and I found it easy to use not to mention it is open source. If you can program, you can customise it to suit your exact needs without having to spend thousands of $$. I think there is also a network of tech support .
Wordpress is popular and reputable and of course yours truly has been inducted to the “WordPress hall of edu” thanks to ETEC 🙂 I think each blog has it’s niche and so I am not sure I can honestly compare all without exploring each at the same level.
I am however curious as to the re action of your students after their frustrations lead them to blogging discovery. How has blogging impacted their learning in your opinion?
Ifeoma
Hi,
Sorry, I was not able to reply to this post earlier because it was only yesterday (Nov. 29) that my students submitted their blogs.
Based on what they submitted, I would say that they are excellent when they really like the topic of their post.
Most of the students talked about food. They presented/provided wonderful pictures and great information.
Thank you for sharing your Moodle experience.
I use both Moodle and WordPress for my classes. The reason I like Moodle is just the same as what you pointed out in your post.
I like it because I can receive and see emails, generate quizzes/tests, and keep track of students’ work and marks. Also, students can upload assignments and do sample quizzes/tests. However, I prefer WordPress when uploading handouts and posting information, such as info and rubric for projects, lessons, and activities, on classes.
Deb
I instruct adults in the workplace and I don’t plan to use blogs in the classroom. However, I maintain a blog for my company mostly for personal reasons to explore and post ideas that are relevant to my field and interests. I found that WordPress works best simply because I was introduced to it through […]
Continue reading Blog site review Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Hey Julie,
Thanks for your post! I am very new to blogging so I found this a very interesting topic for me to learn more about and share my findings with my team. I also agree that WordPress is a great blogging site, its not only easy to use but also very easy to navigate around.
Jenaca
Julie,
Do you have any intention of using wordpress with your adult students? I think it would work magic for you. I think you could get twice the work done that you do f2f. Currently, I am able to expose my students to additional concepts and content that f2f would allow me to do. My students are currently on midterm but the class doesn’t stop. From home they are still able to participate in class activities through wordpress.
Everton
Hi Everton,
I actually started with Wikis with my students and it was very challenging for them. Maybe it would have been easier to start with a blog. I also had a discussion forum for them but that didn’t work the greatest either. They seemed too indoctrinated to their old ways (specificaly email) and were resistant to change. Now that I’ve been exploring blogs more and seeing how it’s used for this course site I might try it in the future. I had a website setup where I posted all the content but it was actualy a lot of work to do the formatting of the web pages. A blog may have been the better format actually. I’m also restrained by the company technology policy. In this case they didn’t have a blogsite and they do not allow company information to be posted anywhere externally.
Glad to hear that your work with blogs is successful. It’s encouraging.
Thanks,
Julie
Hi Julie,
Thanks for your comments and your post. You bring a unique perspective as you are looking at training in a workplace environment. You mentioned that your students weren’t receptive to a wiki. If you were to use a blog in a workplace teaching environment, what features of a blog would encourage their engagement? Do you think you would use blogger or WordPress?
Also, if you had used blogging in your course, do you think it would have added to the learning experience? How would you have used blogging in your course?
Juliana.
Hi Juliana,
I would use WordPress over Blogger because I find it more professional. I think that if I used the Blog it would have been easier than the static web pages to design – the format is built into the templates. It also could have enhanced the experience because it’s interactive so the students could have posted comments on the weekly educational material. I think this would have been most beneficial for the regional participants where there was a bigger time difference. I think I would have done away with the discussion forum because I could get the same effect by having them engage in the discussions using the reply form like this. The biggest hold back would be whether or not the corporation had a blogging application setup. I think its unlikely that a corporation will let their employees go offsite to engage in discussions about internal business issues.
Hi Julie,
Thank you for sharing your experience. Just like you, I also like WordPress.
Its Dashboard is easy to use and there are lots of features that I like, including the Custom Menu.
I was also surprised to see that even my students (secondary level) are indoctrinated to their old ways. I created a Q&A section for them so that they can leave their questions there for me to answer, but they still prefer emails. If WordPress had an email function, then it’d be easier for my students to send me an email directly from the blog. That’s the part that’s missing from WP.
After your experience using the ETEC 522 blog, do you think your students would like the use of blogging if there is an email function?
Deb
Hi Deb,
I think the email function would definately help. I had the students requesting email functions with the Sharepoint site. It was huge but I suspect it’s a crutch and I would really like the students to progress with the new tools. It’s a challenge though. Change takes time.
I like the custom menus too but I found out when we did our team assignment for gaming that not all WordPress blogs have this functionality. It made me go exploring a little more with the different templates. I wish I had more time for explorations!
It’s funny that you should mention WordPress. I have not used it very much and have not explored the arena of Blogs like others, but I did notice that WordPress tends to appear a bit more professional and laid out than others. As well, the functionality appears to be a bit better. A note to self next time I need a Blog!
I have to confess to being a closet blogger. That is, I personally have used blogs to organize and collect things I’ve done and learned online, but I admit to not using them that often in my classes. My first blog was created using Blogger in 2009, but its lack of ability to make pages […]
Continue reading Creepy blogger! Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Karen,
Nice work! I also like blogs that allow me to be in control. As a result, students think about what they plan to post as it will be deleted or not published if guidelines are not followed. I have also noticed that if the blog is not frequently updated and social media features integrated, students will show little or no interest in it.
Everton
Karen and Everton,
I agree with you that I also like blogs that I can control.
I agree with you Karen that Blogger Dashboard was much harder to use compared to WordPress. I’ve been using WP for my classes since 2 years ago and students like how I’ve set up the blog.
Everton, you are right that students would not be interested if a blog is not updated frequently.
Deb
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the compliment! And I agree that sometimes blogs can look a little overwhelming. When there are long pages of text it can definitely get overwhelming and sometimes the page options of WordPress can decrease the overwhelming feeling.
I agree with you about Drupal and necessity of downloading everything to your computer. In a school system where you have to meet with IT requirements, a system like Drupal can be very cumbersome. I get the feeling that if you were looking at blogs like a venture that was targetted for the K-12 environment, you would prefer to see a cloud-based system. Is there anything else that you would like to see in blogging platforms to make them even better for your applications?
Juliana.
Hi Juliana,
I am glad for this opportunity to investigate different blogging platforms, and find myself preferring the ones that start to look more like multimedia webpages, i.e. Edublog and Posterous. I think the ability to impose privacy limits for class- or educational-only access is important in all web applications that are used for teaching, although that could be seen to impede a real community of learning, I guess. There is a definite approach to encouraging student participation in blogs, as Everton points out above, and I think it’s a case of me needing to play around a bit more in order to tailor the medium to my students’ learning styles and preferences.
Thanks!
KJ
Hi Karen,
Thank you for your post. I think in this day and age, it will be very important to have some sort of security features on blogs. I think that is a definite drawback for some of the free ones out there.
You also spoke of encouraging participation in blogs. What challenges have you seen with respect to participation?
Juliana.
I agree with you that in the MET program we can be overwhelmed with the multitude of requests to create a blog for our eportfolio, but do you see the benefit for students to do the same thing? and would they too be overwhelmed if various teachers requested the same assignment? I am glad you are exploring the various platforms that are available for blogging – our question will be, is there a tool that would do an even better job?
Hi Karen,
It sounds like your class is the digital village for the digital natives of today. Good job! I enjoyed reading your post! particularly because I found a lot of things there that I could relate to myself, e.g. reading other peoples blog and not making mine public. I find that the way you use blogs in your classroom resonates with my ideas about using blogs in the classroom. I am not a teacher but I completely agree with having Moderator rights to review posts before they are published. I like that feature because I think it will make life easier for both teacher and students in preventing inappropriate comments.
Ifeoma
Problogue: I have, what I think, is a relatively long history with blogging. I don’t recall when I started reading or using some specific ones, but I started writing and maintaining my own personal blog in July of 2005. I did it as a place to express myself with words and to share humour and […]
Continue reading Going Blog Wild? Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Thanks for your post! You spoke about using blogger for personal use and WordPress for school use. From a venture point of view, what do you think should be done to the design of these blogs to improve them and make them better for your personal and school applications?
Juliana.
A couple of features I’d like to see (if they don’t exist somewhere yet):
– I would love it if Blogger allowed you to make separate pages like WP does
– better threading of conversations – more like a message board
– maybe Edublogs does this… more control of accounts, groups, comments, etc.
Just for starters, perhaps!
Thanks for your responses! Threading of conversations is important and it would be nice if the blogs out there give did give us more control of accounts and groups. May be in the future
Juliana.
Your experience with blogging began in the same way we described in the history of blogging – as a personal journal, and because of your positive experience with this format, it sounds like you could see the benefits of this communication tool for your students. As Juliana points out, what do you think would make blogs even better if you had a wish list/
Another feature I would like to see is suggested links / “pages like…”, perhaps. In it, students who post under certain topics / subjects may have suggested pre-checked, safe blogs / sites that may be of interest to them. Perhaps this could just be something to add in a sidebar.
Another thing I would like is some sort of penpals matchmaking… maybe a meeting place of sorts on a parent site (or just from the parent site). Say… you were doing a project on Flat Stanley or a class was working on a theme from a certain country. The matching utility could math that class (or student(s) up with other students exploring a similar topic or from that particular place. It would be a good way to facilitate some community-of-learning / collaborative type “stuff”!
Wow, thanks for the thorough analysis on the blogs.
I’ve tried Blogger once when my friend introduced it to me. She was using it for her Science and Chemistry classes and had a good experience with it, so she recommended it to me. She also gave me a training session on how to create Blogger. However, since I was a big fan of WordPress and had used anything else other than WP, I had hard time setting up a blog using Blogger. Many setup functions were different, so I had to go back to WP.
But I’ve heard from many people around me that Blogger is a good one to use for courses, so I’d like to try it this coming summer.
I agree with you that WordPress is easier than Blogger in terms of how Dashboard is set up. That’s probably why I always go back to WP.
Thanks for sharing!
Deb
You’ve got it backwards, Deb! I find Blogger easier to use – it’s simpler than WordPress. I like WordPress. It’s just more… “involved”.
Thanks for the list of blogs – I never have explored this arena before and find that there are many options available for one’s use. Like anything though, learning a new ‘technology’ takes a lot of time and energy. I am always surprised to find people who use these tools effectively in their classroom, while others appear to not be so efficient at it.
Currently I do not use blogging in my classroom. As I am new at my work, I am in conversations with the principal in order to build more specific policies about IT integration in instruction. But I had used bolgs in other school with students of grade 11. We held a space to support the […]
Continue reading My blogging experience Posted in: Week 07: Blogs
Hi Angela,
Thank you for sharing your experiences! You touch on some of the implementation issues people have to think about when starting a blog. Your application is unique in that you are creating a course in a blog. Any reasons why you are choosing to use a blog for this instead of an open source LMS such as Moodle? Also do you find that there are any limitations with Edublog?
Looking forward to your response!
Juliana.
Hi Juliana, we will use Moodle and a wiki as part of the course. The course is about Web 2.0 tools for learning. I chose those three because they facilitate the creation of communities of learning.
Hi Angela,
I too used to use Edublogs – I appreciated that it was designed for educators, but then I became frustrated with the advertisements that suddenly appeared across the top of my blog – only by paying for the premium version would that stop. Maybe that has changed since then, but I switched to WordPress after that. One thing that I do appreciate about Edublogs though is the “awards” granted to the best blogs by educators – just like the awards that books win, ( I am attracted to the award-winners and assume they are good reads?) this is a good filtering system to help me wade through the thousands of teacher blogs out there!
I too am anxious to hear if you have tried Moodle as an open source LMS.
Hi Brenda,
I have been designing the course for a month now and it haven’t appeared yet any advertisement. Hope not experience this, but thanks for the tip. I will be aware about that.
Thanks for the tip about awards. I did not know that we could do this.
Angela.
Angela,
Just to let you know that your post should go into the Week 7 category:)
Deb
Thanks Deb! Things like this happens when we are working a lot of hours 🙂
Hi Angela (again),
I’m currently using WordPress for three of my courses and two of them are Tech Immersion courses. I haven’t used Edublogs yet but I’d like to try it next year as you said functions and features are very similar.
Have you noticed any differences in terms of creating a blog? What are some of thr features in Edublogs that you think are cool?
Deb
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
Juliana 5:54 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
You touched on an issue that we have seen in many blogs…many have been started but not kept up or they don’t have much of a following. We are often told that blogs improve intereaction and discussion, but is this really true? Are they hard to manage and that is why they are discontinued? Or are there other issues?
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Juliana.
Karen Jones 6:07 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think it comes down to the author’s original purpose, as to whether a blog stands the test of time, Juliana. I know my first blog lies gathering digital dust because I used it to prepare for MET by researching e-portfolios and collections of digital tools. It wasn’t really a daily journal kind of blog. As well, quality of the blog is important, as Stephen has attested. Perhaps the most dynamic blogs are pertinent and serve a purpose for a larger public. I know I like blogs that review things that I am intending on purchasing 😉 Anyone have any comments on buying TV’s?
Deb Kim 12:15 pm on October 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Juliana,
You raised a good point.
I can answer your question: “Are they hard to manage and that is why they are discontinued?”
I don’t know what others use their blogs for, but I use my blog to give students what I’ll be doing in each class and updates on their quizzes/tests. That means, my blog runs for 1 year until the course is over. As the purpose of my blogs is for the course use only, they are discontinued once the course is finished.
Deb
mcquaid 1:27 pm on October 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
“…blogs improve intereaction and discussion, but is this really true?”
I think blogs can enable interaction and discussion for people that are separated by time and space. As far as improve, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I would retool what you said to be, “Blogs improve WITH interaction and discussion.” Feedback and comments can motivate a blogger and keep them going. Without this show of interest, a blogger can feel dejected or a little bored… as if their words and thoughts aren’t as important or interesting as they thought they were or once were.
Juliana 9:51 pm on October 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you for your response. More and more I am getting the sense that blogging does not equal increase in classroom interactions as was previously thought.
Which brings me to my next question…what can be changed about blogs to improve interaction? Is there anything that can be changed to the platform itself to improve interaction or is it up to the teacher to try and devise ways to improve interaction?
Juliana.