Why blog? Reasons you may want to try one on for your classroom

As you may know, I've used Kidblogs, Edublogs, and now Google Blogger (the one you are currently viewing). Set up is easy and students and teachers can begin posting immediately. I like Blogger as it's yet another Google product that is easy to use and allows students (and teachers) to easily access through existing Drive. In Blogger, you can also close the group so it's not searchable on the internet, nor accessible to those without permissions. Pretty slick. It’s a great way to start teaching (or solidify) digital citizenship and internet safety skills in a safe, closed environment.

But that’s the boring part.

The cool reasons:

1. You can post your lessons, assignments, project parameters/deadlines and students always have a place to go to find that information.
2. You can communicate with students that might not otherwise speak up in class. Example: post a video and grade students based on their discussions/posts/comments.
3. Students can use the blog to start their writing process, brainstorming with their classmates.
4. Require students to use proper English, punctuation and actual words (‘you’ not ‘U’; ‘for’ not ’4′).

I love this quote from Ms. Yollis (and the rest of her post here):

The inspiration for the blog came from my feelings about Open House. I always love that night because it brings parents and their children together to share about what they are learning. Parents are always so excited and the students so proud to share. Having the classroom blog is like having Open House all year long. Students share what they are learning and then return to comment. Parents have regular opportunities to participate in the learning through commenting.

Her classroom blog: http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/

Please let us know if you have a classroom blog, which site you use, and how students use it!

Digital collaboration with Padlet, Glogster EDU, and Blendspace

More made up words for new apps...

But these are pretty cool, so they match up to their groovy names nicely.

Reading.org does a really nice overview of Padlet  (formerly Wallwisher) in the classroom; if you have time to read it, please do. Basically, Padlet is a virtual board with sticky notes that can be easily moved, shared and embedded.  Students can pull in text, images, and video to create their project. Teachers can also use this to share resources with students, and privacy settings make it a safe place for feedback and post moderation. Yes – Padlet is available in Chrome Apps

Here are 5 swell ways to use Padlet (from Education World) [book reviews, group thank you wall, topic summary, open Q&A wall, opinion forum]

More ideas from Guilford Schools on using digital storyboards like Glogster EDU and Padlet

Glogster EDU is similar to Padlet in that it’s also a digital whiteboard. Students and teachers can create Glogs and bring digital resources like video, text, with fun backgrounds, options, all with ability to collaborate within teams and share your finished project. Glogster has a digital library to use for images or ideas and inspiration. iPad app available.

Another contender is Blendspace. Another interactive digital sharing board, this was formerly called EdCanvas. Again, free and up and running in 5 minutes and on your way to creative interactive lessons.  Basically, an easy way to blend some digital content with your lesson, including quizzes and videos alongside your lessons. This app plays nicely with Chrome and is available in the Chrome App store. Review from a fanatic here!

Think of all three as a big digital tagboard for students and teachers to create and share  projects and lessons.  Students can present these, or turn them in digitally too, saving them to their student folder on your Google Drive (yes, we WILL have training on that too:)