Bill MacKenty

Blogging and education: a great mix. Part 1

It’s really easy to blog (really).

I’ve been talking about blogging for a while (click here to read some of my conference notes).

In the interest of opening this up to even more teachers, I’d like to write a short series about using blogs in your classroom.

We’ll cover designing and making a blog, securing your blog, blog safety and getting students to blog!  I’ve seen great success from teachers who are using blogs to communicate, reach out, assess, and connect.  They are doing this with their parents, students, coworkers, and community.

But let’s get some basic out of the way, shall we?

What is a BLOG?? (kind of sounds like an infectious disease, doesn’t it?)

Our friends at Wikipedia have a great answer right here

From the horses mouth:

“A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation…” (source).

I like to think of blogs as “online you”.

Why BLOG?

It really is easy.  In fact, it takes less time to post a blog entry with your weekly newsletter than it does to write your weekly newsletter, walk down to the copier, make 18 copies, and then make more when one our kids loses it.

It’s available. As soon as you publish your blog, it’s available.  Parents can look at your newsletter, homework assignments, reminders, and special announcements.  If a parent is subscribed to your blog, they will know as soon as you update your blog.

The nice thing about the internet is it’s ubiquity. Mom or dad can view your blog from home, the office, or even a special cell phone!

It stays.  Once something is online, it’s there! Imagine having a year of homework assignments available!  Or perhaps some worksheets you’ve created.  If a student is sick, or away for a while, they can easily find old assignments.

If you want to remove or edit a post it really is no problem.

it’s a 2-way thing.  If you want, you can have people comment on your blog.  This enables students and parents to ask questions and give feedback related to your posts!