blogging

[|polly's blog]

=**__Articles on blogging:__**= 1. This article is a great overview to identifying the use/ purpose for a blog in a particular instructors classrom. It would be a great precursor to a training or group introduction to educators for tapping into the blog resource. http://www.edutopia.org/digital-discussion-take-your-class-to-internet 2. This is a personal article addressing the overwhelming resources and lack of time to access them all...written with the light hearted realization that blogging is writing and what a useful //PERSONAL// tool. http://www.edutopia.org/blogging-purpose 3. This article has some data collected from surveying. It has several individual links for statistics on teen multimedia usage and trends along with accessability of the internet overall for our students. http://www.edutopia.org/pew-report-teenagers-social-media 4. The following links are to a site where one can view blogs organized and funded by http://www.kentuckyclassroom.com/ and is being developed, maintained, and administered by Dr. Steve Hyndman. KentuckyCassroom.org is a free website development resource for use by Kentucky teachers. The site uses a modified version of WordPress, a popular open source blogging software application, that allows anyone with basic technology skills to easily publish and maintain a website using only a web browser. Since it is designed for schools it has some unique security and format perspectives. **What do you need to do to get a Premium Site for your school?** ~ Contact the group at info@kentuckyclassroom.com to discuss your needs ~ Sign a contract with us ~ Place a link on your school website to your new school blog portal and start blogging http://kentuckyclassroom.org/video-tutorials/ http://www.georgetownprofessor.net/podblog/?page_id=47 http://kentuckyclassroom.org/rison/ This one is an example of a site for a biology teacher 5. http://wordpress.com/ is another blog format company. It is more liberal, but very user friendly. http://www.21classes.com/shop/features is very exclusive to classroom management. The blog site is designed for up to 50 students and 50 MB per student. Thlis was an awesome find for me!!! I see that you had it referenced in the list of resources as well.

I think blogging __conclusions to labs__ for higher level questions using vocab is going to be the first use at all levels... Here is what I mean: Lab journal reports conclude with 3 components: a. Restate the problem and answer it references the data collection/ processing section of the report. b. Use the vocab terms required in this reference. c. Discuss errors associated with the lab that can affect both precision and accuracy. At this point in many lab reports the students are fairly burned out on the assignment and the conclusion becomes a quick last minute fairly abstract paragraph "comment" (if you will...). By posting a group conclusion, lab partners could submit a joint conclusion and modify it to be graded separately two days later. It would allow for more a thought through analysis with multiple brain power. Plus, access to fellow classmate postings could provide insight into error that may not have entered discussion in a particular group or class section. The writing component of Narrowing the Academic Achievement gap is a current concern in our science dept, as well as the reading component. Expressing complete thoughts by reading and rewriting/ adding writing to the works of others in your lab group would be a quick realistic implementation of this. -In this situation for me, it would serve as a visible writing/ modification platform for the entire class. I often don't have time to view and exibit conclusions after the lab is done to comment good or bad... this would force myself and the students to perfect high level questions and report relavance to data collected. That is huge! -Personal expression is the pathway to relationships. Reading current science article postings and responding would be a second objective to be served and enhanced through blogging.
 * 1. How can I use Blogs in my classroom?**
 * 2. Where will Blogs fit into my curriculum?**
 * 3. What is the purpose of blogging in the (my) classroom?**