Web 2.0 in the Classroom: 04/2008

Everybody probably goes about becoming a blogger and becoming a teacher of blogging a bit differently. For me, here's how it went.

Phase 1 - I started reading other educator's blogs -- and quite by accident! I had my preconceptions about blogs, and so not really knowing I was reading "blogs" was probably a ticket into this world. I then started my own blog and began experimenting with different platforms. Tell me this is normal, because I spent many, many hours deciding which one I really wanted to use and which one I wanted my students to use. I tried different platforms (WordPress, Blogger, Edublogs) at home and at school to see which ones performed the best according to bandwidth and filter issues. While moving my blog around a few times the first few months probably wasn't the best idea, I did get a good feel for each platform's potential and can say I feel "experienced" in several. Probably better to do this early than mid-way or when you get a year or so into your blogging.

Phase 2 - I started commenting on other blogs. I became very interested in how this medium starts "conversations" and how these "conversations" would unfold over time and across other's blogs. I started learning that commenting is very much an art -- that is, if you really want to sustain conversation.

Phase 3 - I started doing anecdotal and empirical research on blogging. By this phase, I was pretty sold that this would be a great activity for my students, but knew I would have to persuade my principal and others that it was worthy of a slot in the curriculum. Thus this list was borne. Also at this time I started exploring various educational standards that blogging would support, and found that nearly all of the new ISTE standards can be reinforced, in some manner, by blogging. Last, I began looking at research on safety and Internet use/blogging to see what preparations I needed to make to ensure that students could use this medium in a safe way.

Phase 4 - I started implementing my ideas withing the classroom. I quickly learned that colleagues often don't "get it" at first -- that even some administrators don't get it at first. As this phase unfolded, I learned I had to go slowly with the students as I introduced the concept of blogging. Though we often refer to today's youth as "digital natives", I'm learning that they are comfortable in some areas, but need hand-holding to get going in others. As we started to learn about blogging, I used lots of step-by-step demos, created tons of online videos, and used paper handouts to help them see the progression of steps. Structure is so key in this beginning phase. They need information/procedures "chunked up" so as to avoid an overwhelmed feeling.

Phase 5 - I began to evaluate their first post using rubrics, and began teaching how to begin and sustain conversations using comments (this could be a whole post unto itself). Of great importance here was also letting students have time to read other blogs that were similar to their own to gain new ideas and insights. This also became the phase that, after reading their first post, I could re-teach concepts that they just weren't quite getting (importance/art of hyperlinking, readability issues with layout and color, etc.).

Phase 6 - When the students were ready for their next post, I tried to introduce one more new concept, such as how to add a visitor map to their sidebar. When it became time for their third post, maybe we'd insert a blog roll. When reaching our fourth post, we learned more about how to embed a video or slideshow, etc. In this last phase, I also emphasized patience and perseverance. Visitors often don't automatically just come to our blogs; comments may not begin as fast as we'd like. To some extent, this phase becomes reflective in nature; we often look at the progression of how the blog was built and take time to think about its future development.

I'd love to hear how others have gone about weaving blogging into their curriculum. I'm sure I've overlooked or not thought about other ideas and methods. Share/comment on your experiences -- there are lots of folks who are just starting out on this trek and might greatly benefit.