Blogging

toc =Agenda=

**What is blogging?**
[|Sturges] (2005) defines blogging as "A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems" (//Blog, Blogging// section)

Will Richardson (2006), in his book [|Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms], gives some insight into blogging in the classroom by providing the following list of what could and could not be considered educational blogging.
 * Not blogging
 * Posting assignments
 * Journaling, i.e., "This is what I did today."
 * Posting links
 * Not quite, but getting close (depending on the depth of the annotation)
 * Links with descriptive annotation, i.e., "This site is about ...."
 * Simple blogging
 * Links with analysis that gets into the meaning of the content being linked
 * Reflective, metacognitive writing or practice without links
 * Real blogging
 * Links with analysis and synthesis that articulate a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind
 * Complex blogging
 * Extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period of time that builds on previous posts, links and comments. ([|p. 32])

Classroom Examples

 * [|Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog] Kathy Cassidy, 1st/2nd grade teacher, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
 * [|And Another Thing] Sue Tapp, High School English teacher, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
 * [|Developing Expert Voices] Darren Kuropatwa, High School Math teacher, Winnipeg, Manitoba
 * [|Guerrilla Season Book Blog] - Eric Langhorst 8th grade American History Teacher, Liberty, Missouri
 * Some examples of student blogs - found on [|Will Richardson's blog comments][|]
 * Steve Hargadon's List of Educational Blogs
 * [|Blogmeister] Search by state, country, and/or grade level

Objective(s)

 * Authentic Audience
 * Authentic Activities
 * Collaboration
 * Authentic Context

Tools

 * [|Wordpress.com]
 * [|Blogger.com]
 * [|Edublogs.org]
 * [|Blogmeister]
 * [|21Classes]