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Blogging and eboards: Adding an online component to classroom learning

Blogging and eboards: Adding an online component to classroom learning. David Polochanin, January 9, 2010 Connecticut Writing Project. Take a quick survey. Access the link from my blog:. http://the30somethingsuburbanguy. blogspot .com. My background. 1995 UConn graduate, BA in Journalism

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Blogging and eboards: Adding an online component to classroom learning

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  1. Blogging and eboards: Adding an online component to classroom learning David Polochanin, January 9, 2010 Connecticut Writing Project

  2. Take a quick survey • Access the link from my blog: http://the30somethingsuburbanguy.blogspot.com

  3. My background • 1995 UConn graduate, BA in Journalism • State staff reporter, The Providence Journal, 1995-1997 • Connecticut Writing Project Teacher-Consultant since 1999 • Freelance columnist, The Boston Globe, 2001-2005 • Correspondent-intern, Boston Globe, 1994 • Correspondent, freelancer for Hartford Courant since 1993 • Other recent freelance work has appeared in Education Week, Middle Ground and The Christian Science Monitor • Teacher of middle school Language Arts at Gideon Welles School, Glastonbury, since 2001

  4. About eboards • Eboards are online message boards • They can, and probably should, be moderated • It costs $39 to purchase use of an eboard for a year (multiple teachers can use the same one) • Underthesamesky.eboard.com • Cwptraining.eboard.com • http://www.eboard.com/

  5. What is blogging? • Blogging, or weblogging, involves writing for a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Source: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog

  6. Everybody’s got one…

  7. Why Blog? A brief research base • Blogging is writing for an authentic purpose. “Authentic literacy activities in the classroom replicate and reflect literacy activities that occur in people's lives outside of school and instructional contexts.” Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, Tower, International Reading Association, 2006 • Blogging is response to writing. “Students need to hear the responses of others to their writing, to discover what they do or do not understand.” – Donald Graves, University of New Hampshire professor emeritus and author of A Fresh Look at Writing, 1994 • Blogging is relevant for the adolescent population. “Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64 % of online teenagers ages 12 through 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57 % of online teens in 2004. Girls…dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35 % of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys.” Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2007

  8. One guy’s theory about blogging… • “I think the pleasure of completed work is what makes blogging so popular. You have to believe most bloggers have few if any actual readers. The writers are in it for other reasons. Blogging is like work, but without coworkers thwarting you at every turn. All you get is the pleasure of a completed task.” (Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert cartoon)

  9. One woman’s theory about blogging… Deborah Branscum, a contributing editor to Newsweek, wrote a feature on blogging for the magazine and contributes to Fortune.com, Macworld, Wired, PC World. Here are 4 reasons she’s a fan of blogging. • Creative freedom. Part of a blog's allure is its unmediated quality.There's an enormous freedom in being able to present yourself precisely as you want to, however sloppily or irrationally or erratically. • Instantaneity. "With a Weblog, you hit the send key and it's out there.“ • Interactivity. "It's a kick to get feedback from people you've never heard of who stumble on your Weblog," she says. • Source: http://www.jdlasica.com/articles/OJR-weblogs1.html

  10. What you will do today • Explore blogs online and identify characteristics of quality blogs • Create a personal or professional blog using Blogger.com and respond to others on their blogs • Discuss and consider how to use blogs in the classroom - as an instructional tool and as a component of your academic program

  11. Sample blogs • http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/ • http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/ • http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/ • http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog • http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/ • http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/

  12. Explore blogs – first activity • Take 15-20 minutes on your own to explore blogs • Record, individually or with a partner, some characteristics of what makes a blog effective. Post to eboard. • underthesamesky.eboard.com (password = share) • Share conclusions with the group.

  13. Characteristics of effective blogs - continued • Surf the Web for blogs of news organizations and media sites, favorite authors, celebrities, etc. • If you need a little more direction, check out TIME Magazine’s 2009 Best Blog site: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1879276,00.html Or Forbes Magazine’s Best Blogs: http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/14/bestblogslander.html • Post your responses to this “eboard” • underthesamesky.eboard.com

  14. Create your own blog – see instructions on sep. paper • Directions: • Setting up your blog.doc • Link to my blog example: http://polochaninsinsights.blogspot.com/

  15. Final survey • Please return to my blog to take post-workshop survey: • http://the30somethingsuburbanguy.blogspot.com

  16. “Without the New York Times, there is no blog community. They’d have nothing to blog about.” (Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point) • http://www.everyblock.com/about/

  17. Additional resources • http://www.jdlasica.com/articles/OJR-weblogs1.html (Two articles about blogging and journalism) • We’ve Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Culture (book, Perseus Publishing) • The Poynter Institute: www.poynter.org (The preeminent journalism research site in the U.S.) • High School Broadcast Journalism Project: http://hsbj.org/ • National Writing Project: www.nwp.org • Connecticut Writing Project: www.cwp.uconn.edu

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