Early Childhood

Communicating with students

Blogs are used in many different ways in the classroom as a tool for communication with students. With the introduction of web 2.0 tools, we now have the opportunity to move from being consumers of information (reading) to being publishers of information.

Blogs in the classroom can be used to focus on any curriculum area, or several  at once.  As a literacy tool, children can post messages to each other, comment on work samples, critique their own work and others or keep their own personal learning log (with work samples that can include scanned work samples, photographs, or audio samples).

Keeping children safe while interacting in this online environment can be a challenge when using blogs in classrooms. It can also be a great way to introduce safety issues (for themselves and others in the class) to children from a very young age. Decisions need to me made about using children’s names and photographs. Parents need to be informed about the online interactions that are going to be occurring, and permission needs to be sought. Children also need to be informed about appropriate etiquette and online bullying issues.

Many blog programs allow teachers to filter any comments that are made to class blogs, which allows teachers some degree of control in the protection process. However if children are managing their own blogs, other strategies need to be used, and blogs need to be monitored using other methods. Expectations about use need to be agreed on as a class.

Blogs can also be closed to internet listings, or password protected.

Literacy levels of early learners, ESL children and children who may have additional needs also need to be considered when using  blogs. There are now a growing range of tools that allow teachers, and students to add comments and interact verbally, and visually.

When making decisions about safety, it is also important to consider what the purpose of the blog is going to be for students. Is it going to be used for families and students as a ‘gallery’? Is it going to be an online newsletter? Is it for communication? Who do you want to communicate with?

Communicating with parents and families

Blogs can be use as a tool for interacting with parents. Newsletters written on paper often get lost, forgotten, or ignored along with the rest of the endless newsletters and papers that go home with children from school.

Blogs can be used as a tool for interacting with parents that can be meaningful, and inclusive of feedback from parents and students.

Teachers can ‘post’ regular information about the learning program, with links to related learning games or digital learning objects that can be accessed online. Work samples and child feedback can also be included as part of the information displayed. Parents can comment on the program and displays.

Parents can be part of conversations with teachers, with individual students, or the whole class through the blog. Parents can post their comments from home or work when they are unable to come into the classroom.

Of course this form of communication is limited to families with internet access (which seems to be an increasing number of parents, especially as internet access is now available free from local libraries and at a minimal cost at internet cafes).  Schools can also set up their own internet cafes, or ‘hubs’ to allow parents to use school internet facilities. When parents are using internet from school, clear expectations about appropriate use need to be addressed.

Communication with teachers

Many teachers are now creating professional blogs. These allow educators to share their own professional journeys  and get feedback from educators around the world. Such blogs are creating professional online communities in which educators are able to share ideas, thoughts, and collaborate.

(see link below to my del.icio.us account for examples of class blogs and professional blogs).

Communicating with the world

Class blogs, and professional blogs can be listed on search engines, advertised through blogging communities, or through blog providers.

This means that blogs can have a world audience. Children can interact with blogs from anywhere in the world, and share their own blogs all over the world.

What are the implications of this?

What are the opportunities?

As we become publishers of information, we also need to consider how our audience has changed. We can now ‘connect’ with other classes, and teaches from around the world.

Buddy blogs? – similar to email buddies.

 

 

My clas blogs 

2007 (created in term 4 for an R/1 class at Lockleys North Parimary School).

 magon.edublogs.org

2008 (began in term 2 for a year 1/2 class at McDonlad Park Schools, Mount Gambier).

t1mcpark.edublogs.org

Why Let Our Students Blog

For communication

For literacy

For ownership

For sharing

For collaboration

For discussion

For empowerment

For interaction

For motivation

For participation

For engagement

For excitement

For conversation

For creativity

For reflection

To extend the walls of the classroom

To give students a voice

To give student an audience

To give students a classroom that is always open

To give them digital futures

Write to lean

Blog to learn.

This was extracted form a video by an educational blogger Rachael Boyd:

Go to http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=be6ec9b852b0a542e2f3 to view full presentation.

Or to Rachael Boyd's professional blog My Journey in ICT and Blogging.

 Other useful blogging information

A wiki about internet safely for parents (and very usefull for educators too) with examples of ways to keep children safe on the internt - no specific information about blog safely- http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/internetsafety

There are some interesting links at the bottom of the page to other internet safety pages, including one specificlally for social networking.

Blogs in Edcuation - http://cai.ucdavis.edu/blogsineducation.htm

7 Year Old Bloggers - BBC article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3804773.stm

Blogs in Education - scroll down to the bottom for links to other blogs in educaiton articles - http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/

EdBlogger Praxis - this has links to other educational blogs - http://educational.blogs.com/

The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom. Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom.