Session: Blogging, Creating Engaging Learning Environments
Presenter: Konrad Glogowski
teachandlearn on Twitter
Many of his in class blogs were done in relation to reading a book, novel, in class and then discussion was done in the blog.
He left the blogs open and students defined their spaces and carrying on discussions, the teacher was a facilitator, students took ownership of the discussion.
In creating successful blogs, first, it is necessary to create a feeling of community and create a sense of belonging.
Also students need to feel they have been given freedom to contribute responsibly, but also teacher must acknowledge the students efforts, and be a reader of all blogs but maybe not comment on every single entry because of the quantity of posts.
It is also important to read as a reader not a teacher, at times and to make comments as a reader, so that the sense of community is fostered. This will help to engage the students.
Making the blog community a safe and comfortable place to express thoughtful ideas is important.
It needs to be looked at as a “THIRD PLACE” a comfortable place to visit and spend thoughtful time.
FIRST is home
SECOND is school
THIRD is a hangout, someplace the students enjoy visiting.
Besides the large blog community it is also important to provided structured places for smaller groups
Encourage creative free writing, and allow appropriate customization of individual blog pages
A possible blog host 21 Classses http://www.21classes.com/
Mr Midden’s initial classroom Blog site http://mrmidden.21classes.com/
(still a work in progress)
Benefits of 21classes is it is easy to access and also easy to see content, even a visual representation of the community.
Another possible blog host: lifetype.net which is a opensource blog manager http://lifetype.net/
One possible purpose of a blog is to write to communicate in an ongoing discourse.
Important things the presenter learned from his experience:
It is about teaching but become a reader not an evaluator all the time (at least in the blog)
Show you are human with honest real responses
Make everyone feel heard, even comments off the blog, in person, are very helpful in the success of student involvement.
Important questions to keep in mind when trying to grow a blog:
What do you work towards, what is the goal
What habits and commitments are established
How are these goals sustained
In a blog classroom students are independent researchers.
What about writing conventions? Through contributing to blogs students develop ownership and develop a sense of caring and writing skills come from within, internal motivation to write well. The blog, writing in a public forum and having others thoughtfully respond to their writing gives them a reason to write well.
Presenters blog: http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/