School Blogs: "The Electric Pencil" and "In Need of Coffee"

I'm not going to lie. I chose these blogs because of their titles. What kind of a role model am I? But, there's a lesson here, Blogosphere, right?

Anyway, "The Electric Pencil" (http://epencil.edublog/org/) is a blog set up for a sixth grade class. The most impressive element of the blog is its demonstration of how much writing took place throughout the school year. While it's unclear how involved or thorough all of the writing projects were, there were 78 writing prompts listed that students were ostensibly responsible for! Wow. Students were asked to write everything from expository paragraphs to short stories to free writes to imaginary tree house plans. While not much student work was accessible anymore, there were a few examples which showed obvious use of technology (the site includes links to various "art tools" which help student create digital storyboards, comic strips, etc.). Very cool.

"In Need of Coffee" (http://seventhirtyblues.blogspot.com) is a blog supposedly devoted to high school literature. Not posted to since June 2006, it was hard to gauge the exact purpose of this blog. Its description reads, "[w]hen a student understands the words of a text, interacts with those words beyond the assignment given, allows those words to have meaning in his or her life, there is no greater satisfaction for a teacher of literature." Indeed -- no argument here. So, while at times it seemed the students were given prompts (Iraq, Internet Safety, a book vs. the movie, etc.), it mostly seemed like students were to use this a place to free write. It was unclear if there was any kind of "real" assignment associated with the blog or any kind of entry quota . It seemed a kind of experiment that, after June 2006, was abandoned (or perhaps manifested itself elsewhere). Students posted some ramblings but also some very thoughtful ideas.

After examining both of these blogs, it has become clear to me that 1) blogs are an excellent way to get students writing, and 2) it's important for the purpose of the blog to be articulated to students. It's impossible to tell by looking at the above blogs how well students understood the expectations -- whatever they were. I'm not sure an outside audience necessarily has to know that. But, clearly, participants do.

Educator Blogs: Wes Fryer's "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" and Will Richardson's "Weblogg-ed: Learning With the Read/Write Web"

First off, let me say that after spending minimal time over the past few days with Fryer's (http://www.speedofcreativity.org/) and Richardson's (http://weblogg-ed.com) blogs, I am both overwhelmed and amazed by the amount of information contained within each. One thing that I can definitely appreciate about blogging is that, in the world of education especially, it's very refreshing to have constant open debate about pressing issues.

Both blogs offer many useful posts and other resources, including links to other educator and classroom blogs. My number one criticism of each, and I suppose this is typical of blogs in general (and I'm sure will soon be a mark of mine, once it has more material added to it), is the very long "page 1" that acts as the home page. As a reader, I would be better served if I just had a couple of posts to grapple with at one time. But, that's just me, being all analog, I guess.

What I like best about Fryer's blog is his collection of presentation handouts. These are not only useful in themselves, but they also give a sense of what kind of professional development is going on at various schools. Moreover, I found his podcast help to be useful (especially in light of our future exploits).

Two issues of import that were raised in some of the posts included how to reach "analog readers" with tools like Sunnygram, Presto, and Celery and the mobile phone debate in schools.
As someone who has struggled to bridge that technological gap with my grandmothers, I think such tools are an important stop-gap measure as we all transition to a fully digital world. And, as far as the cell phone debate goes, I have run the whole gamut, from wanting to jam the lines, to now recognizing how useful a tool such technology can be (and, simply, how much more useful cell phones have actually become).

I found Fryer's blog to be very informative but not so user-friendly in terms of his layout. Will Richardson's blog, on the other hand, was much cleaner in its layout. I especially appreciated his categorized/catalogued postings. Also, I thought his bio and "About" section were very informative. At the same time, Richardson's blog seemed a little more commercial than Fryer's(lots of testimonials and ads for his book).

Nevertheless, Richardson's blog was amazing fot its vast collection of educator blogs (listed on a wiki; some were even briefly annotated). I also think his "RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators" will come in handy. One thing I especially appreciated from Richardson was found in one of his Youtube videos. He makes a distinction between Web 2.o and the Read/Write Web and discusses the power of publishing. The fact that more people are publishing on the web allows for greater connections and for greater learning communities. I think that's what we're all about, and it was nice to hear it articulated that way.

Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice

There's an episode of Seinfeld where George has lost his job and is trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life and he suggests to Jerry that he could become a color man in sports broadcasting because he often makes "interesting" comments as he watches games. This, to me, has often been what blogs are all about -- lots of George Costanzas making "interesting" comments about random happenings. Yikes.

As a student, I am apprehensive about blogging because I'm a drafter. It makes me nervous to just put something out there without spending a lot of time polishing it, and, to be honest, I'm not always comfortable with making my work public, even if it is polished.

But, as an educator, I have started to come around to the idea of blogging, and I really do believe it can be a powerful learning tool. As Richardson points out, it is easy and it is "real" writing in that there is always some kind of actual audience to consider. This is powerful.

I also really like the idea of creating an "online filing cabinet" that students carry with them throughout their entire educational careers. Not only would this help schools become paperless, but it is an excellent way to archive student work, build on past learning and track progress.

Teachers, too, could obviously professionally benefit from online collaboration. And, I agree with Richardson that blogs could help better communicate with parents and the community at large (especially in extending the "walls" of the classroom).

So, as a teacher librarian, I think it is important to start demonstrating to teachers how they might use blogs in their own classrooms. Also, I would like to add something as a feature to the existing website at my current school.