Barbara Taylor's List: Blogging in Education

Article describing a qualitative case study published by Ewa McGrail & Anne Davis in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Does a nice job of describing the impact of blogging on student writers - not just the quality of their writing, but their attitudes towards writing.

Bulleted list of learning outcomes when students blog - from Anne Davis

Check this site for lots of great resources (testimonials, videos, press) about Quadblogging™ or to sign your class up to participate. The way it works is once you sign up, you are grouped with 3 other classrooms. Each week the blog of one of the four classes is the focus and students in the other three classes serve as audience by reading and commenting. The cycle repeats to give each group of students an authentic global audience - motivating them to be better writers. Organized by David Mitchell of Heathfield Primary in Bolton, England.

Kathleen Morris is a teacher at Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia. On this page she provides links to posts she has written about educational blogging.

Great guide to getting started with blogging with your students from Kathleen Morris, a teacher at Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia.

Great ideas in this blog post from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano for how blogging can connect your classroom to the world. The post begins by providing links to components of a unit on blogging with elementary students - each link goes to a post on one phase of the process.

Great resource for teachers on introducing blogging to K-8 students. As she says, "It's not about the tools - it's about the skills." She goes through how to help students students read blogs, understand online safety, comment on posts, write posts, and connect with others.

For each grade, K-8, Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano provides a one-page overview of how a classroom blog and student blogs can be used by students and teachers in that grade - examples, skills, etc. Shows how developmental nature of activities and skills through the grades.

Rubrics to assess student participation in blogging - one to assess blog posts and one to assess comments. From Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano.

Great tutorial - starts with basics and then covers ideas and classroom examples; also provides reviews and features of various blogging tools and addresses safety.

"TeachersFirst offers this sample as a service to teachers seeking to set up blogs for their classrooms. It should not be seen as legal advice or as a legal document. Teachers wishing to use this document in total or in part must give credit to TeachersFirst for any portions used from this sample." Customizable Word doc that allows teachers to list purpose, safety guidelines, terms and conditions for students, and consequences of violating the warranty. Students must sign to participate.

Good example of a letter sent home to families about plans for students to blog. Explains how it works, security, and assessment and requires student and parent/guardian signatures after reading the blogging terms and conditions that spell out expectations.

Not recent, but a good overview

Includes tips on tools for subscribing to blogs and has lists of recommended blogs for teachers as well as classroom blogs that include student blog posts.

"Kidblog is designed for K-12 teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog. Students publish posts and participate in academic discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs and user accounts."

Read this news article about Kidblog - the company. Proceed with caution since this article suggests that they are likely to eventually begin charging schools and teachers for services that are currently free.

Gaggle - provider of safe email accounts for students - also provides other tools - blogging, polling, podcasting; check other links at top of page.

An overview of Gaggle and the tools it provides for communication.

Training videos on different aspects of Gaggle - email, digital lockers, drop boxes, blogs, GaggleTube and more.