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Comments(0) Blogging in the K-12 Classroom
Web blogs or blogs have become an important tool in many classrooms. This tutorial will show you how to work with a class and set up blogs for classroom use. It may seem like a daunting task, but it really isn’t that difficult and there are many educational benefits that I will discuss later.
1. First, it is important to find a site that is student friendly. Edublogs is one such site. Click on and watch the video to get a quick tour of the Edublogs process.
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2. As the teacher, you will want to set up a blog for yourself first. You will be able to write instructions in your blog for your students as they set up their blogs and subscribe to each other’s blogs.
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· Click the “Sign up for Free” logo to go to the sign in page.
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3. You will be sent an e-mail confirmation with a password.
4. Login with the password given.
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5. Go to the “Dashboard” and change your password to something you will remember. There are many options for your blog on this page.
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5. You can begin writing immediately in your blog.
6. Give your post a title and then write your first post.
The tool bar has several editing options.
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7. You can then give your students your blog address and have them read your blog for instructions on how to set up their own blog. You can insert the link to Edublogs or other host, so they can get started.
8. They will need to click on the “student log in” to register for a student blog. It will be a learnerblog.org. If your school has school e-mail for students, be sure to instruct them to use that address as they sign up for a blog. They will need to activate the blog and receive their password via e-mail. Many e-mail accounts such as hotmail are blocked by school servers.
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9. This may be a good time to give them some instructions via your blog and let them start blogging. It’s great for the teacher to be able to comment directly about the students’ blogs.
10.The students will love it!
Classroom Applications
Blogs can be used in numerous ways in the classroom and out of the classroom. Students are very tech savy and will pick up on implementation very quickly. The following applications are suggested:
1. The teacher can use his or her blog to post important information for the students to read and give instructions to the students. The students then respond in their own blogs that are fed through RSS so the teacher has access to all the blogs and can read and make comments for the students. Check out the tutorial on this blog about aggregators and learn how to feed your blog through to the students and vice versa.
2. The teacher can also create a class blog site on which to post course content and resources. It may be a place to post pictures of learning activities and various links for student use. This blog can also have links to all student blogs and the students can access and make comments on classmate’s blogs.
3. Another type of blog may be one that is kept by the students who take turns blogging once or twice a week. The posts consist of recapping what has taken place in class and can serve as a review site and documentation for use as a course guide.
Suggested uses all adapted from
Remote Access by Clarence Fisher
Check out Clarence Fisher’s classroom blog
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