Monday, December 1, 2008

921-Session 7-Research Supporting Edublog Usage

This session is research-based, and a little heavy on the statistics, so take what you can from the information, save the citations, and use them in the future if you need to substantiate and legitimize edublogging in the classroom. Along those lines keep an eye on the syllabus and the next Deliverable. The due date will be here before you know it.

But before we do that you may be interested in checking out this screencast on how to turn your blog postings into audio for differentiated instruction. (Click on it twice):





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This session will be spent on gaining background knowledge on the research out there suppporting edublogs in the classroom. It is ready to be downloaded. While you are waiting, check out just a few of your peers' blogs.












  • Jennifer created a team blog where she and a few other school librarians will co-author the postings. This is a great example of how to foster collaboration with your peers, and an additional bonus is that it reduces the workload.












  • Kim added some great 'suggested readings' in the margin, as well as a cool widget and survey feature.












  • Donna has added some video and a 'visitor counter.'












  • Diane has tons of kids commenting.












  • Joanna is using her blog to spread the word and teach other teachers.












  • Andrea's adding screencasts and picture slideshows.












  • Leilani is having fun with her Kindergarten class and has added a weather pixie.




















  • And last, but not least, Stephanie is experimenting with giving her entire class the option to be authors, so that they can write their own posts.





Also, check out, some of these links to past participants' postings and blogs.

Additionally, one recent posting that I really like is from: http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rationale-for-educational-blogging/
this is from just one of the blogs that I subscribe to. It addresses the "Rationalization for Educational Blogging." It is very well written and a great place to start when trying to substantiate edublog usage in the classroom.

Also check out Christian's blog. I suggested he take a look at Slideshare.net and he took the ball and ran with it. (His March '07 postings) What great examples of presenting student work for an external audience. Fantastic!

And lastly, you'll find a number of links in the left hand margin that will bring you to screencasts for a few of Blogger's tools and resources. Check them out and don't forget to experiment with adding gadgets.

Good luck and have fun!

Dave

This Summer's participant comments may be found here, and older past participant comments and insights may be accessed here.

Backup copy of this week's session:


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by davefontaine1