What do blogs have to offer?

Why should we blog or even allow our students to blog?

I brainstormed a few reasons below. It should be easy to notice a theme.

• Web Presence/Instant Publishing - Building and keeping websites current is hard work. Blogs make this work easy without having to know any HTML language. Plus, older content is stored and easily searchable.
• Multimedia - Blogs offer an easy way to spruces up any content with multimedia. Images, audio, and video are easily added to any blog post.
• Hyperlinks - Links to other similar websites and important content are easily created with a blog's editing interface.
• Trackbacks - Trackbacks allow users to easily find out who is linking back to one's blog. It might also be useful to see which students are linking back to something you or your students have posted.
• Comments/Discussions - Comments make it easy to record an entire discussion. Some blogs provide some hierarchical commenting, while others require commenters to refer back to earlier comments.
• Blogrolls - A blogroll makes it easy to share other resources that match a blog's theme. It's also easy to list and link student blogs so that they are... yes... easily accessible.
• Privacy - Blog administrators can make a blog as public or private as they like. This is easily determined upon setting up a blog, but it can also be changed later on to meet the blog's needs.
• Contributors - One blog can easily accommodate multiple writers. This makes blogs and excellent collaboration tool.
• Control - Just about anything that might cause one to hesitate using a blog in school can easily be controlled through various settings that affect everything from a blog's appearance to who has access to reading posts to which comments are allowed to publish.
• HTML for beginners - The reason blogging became so popular in the first place is that it made it easier for users with limited HTML knowledge to publish pretty engaging content. Some HTML knowledge is helpful, but not a requirement.
• Gadgets, widgets, add-ons - Blogs have been around so long that many useful and wonderful tools have been created to help make their interactivity easier to facilitate.
• Embedding - Embedding media from all over the web has never been easier. Sometimes, all you have to do is switch to the HTML view and paste the copied embed code. With certain services and apps, it's even easier!
• Content Management - Managing content is as easy as as simply typing in certain words or phrases to be used as tags. Between tags, categories, dates, etc., managing and organizing blog content is a piece of cake.
• Mobile - With texting and smart phones, it is extremely simple to post to your blog from anywhere.

Did you catch the theme? Was it too easy?

What are some of the reasons you blog or are interested in blogging? Feel free to comment below.

People still blog?

Actually, they do. This presentation is intended as an intermediate or even slightly advanced workshop on blogging in the classroom. We will cover the benefits of blogging, some of the basic tools of the trade, typical features of blogging interfaces, posting techniques, social media integration, a few tips and tricks, as well as ideas as to how we can get our students to blog. Today's presentation is organized on the Google Presentation you see below...



The resources I will be using for this session are below:

• Networked Teaching & Learning - This is the blog I help maintain for the eMINTS National Center. It is full of thought-provoking discussions, ideas for teachers, and loads of resources.
• Suppl_eMINTS - This is a somewhat neglected blog I used to supplement my eMINTS training sessions. Since I write so often for the eMINTS blog, this one has been ignored somewhat, a common fate for many a blog.
• http://emintswincon.wordpress.com - This is the link for blog posts on WordPress. All the content on this blog can also be found on the next two blogs. If one were to look further back into this blog's history, content from previous conferences can be found.
• http://zacearlyemintsconference.blogspot.com/ - This is a blog created using Blogger just for this presentation.
• http://emints.tumblr.com/ - Finally, this is a Tumblr blog, also created for this presentation.

Now, to answer the question above...

Yes. People do still blog, despite its relative old age in the pantheon of internet content. Blogging is as vibrant as ever. According to Wikipedia, there were over 156 million blogs viewable to the public about a year ago. Plus, communities at places like Edublogs and TeacherLingo suggest that educators are active bloggers themselves. For even further proof, check the list at Support Blogging for many educational blogs all over the web.

So, hang on. It should be a wild ride over the next hour as we find out what blogging has to offer!

Tips and Tricks

If you take nothing else from my presentation today, please take with you these thoughts I've gathered on blogging. I had just begun blogging with my students five years ago when I took a position with eMINTS.

The power of seeing one's own words published in digital ink is something to which we should take notice. Since those early experiments with the tool, I've published hundreds, maybe even thousands of posts on various different sites. During that time, I've come to realize a few things about blogging...

It's all about the content. All the fancy gadgets and embedded media in the world won't make up for a lack of high-quality content. Great blogs feature great ideas. Conversely, low-level blog posts and discussions produce low-level engagement.

Blogs need focus. Don't make your blog be a catch-all for just any kind of writing or discussion you want to happen online. Give your blog a focus. This makes it coherent as one post connects to the last. It also makes the work students do with blogs more meaningful to them if they know what to expect.

Quantity vs. Quality: There is often a give and take with blogs. If one posts daily or multiple times a day, posts tend to be short and somewhat superficial. Still, posting every day can help a blog maintain relevancy. Of course, high-quality blog posts take longer to post and don't happen as often. You need to decide what kind of blog you want. Do you want a regular flow of ideas to carry your blog or do you want the occasional thought-provoking post that really gets readers talking? It's not impossible to have both, but you may have to quit your day job.

Consider your organization criteria (tabs, categories, pages) from the beginning. These features help us organize content so that it can be easily retrieved. Stick with simple yet diverse organizational techniques. You may want to be vague in some instances and specific in others. Honestly, it's best to be a little bit of both.

Writing improves with practice. The reason most people don't blog is because writing or coming up with ideas for writing is hard. This can only get better with practice. It might be a struggle at first, but writing comes easier the more often one does it. It might be a good idea to keep a blog that is non-school-related on the side so that you keep your skills fresh. The more we write/blog, the easier it gets.

Still, the most important piece of information I can offer  is to LET YOUR STUDENTS BLOG!

Krissy Venosdale wrote a  blog post of her own about this shift in thinking. Krissy felt as though her students had a blog, but what they really had was her blog and some permission to post now and again or to just comment. I don't know that every student or class needs individual blogs. Some great collaborative work can happen when we share blogs. However, we should be doing all we can to insure that students are fully participating in blogging. Blogging is writing and writing is thinking. Who doesn't want their students thinking?

Of course, to do this, we must consider a few of the issues we've discussed so far in the form of the software available.

• Management - As with any classroom activity, we must carefully consider our management strategies.
  • Privacy vs. Public - How public do you want to make a blog? You can set privacy settings so that only those with permission or a password can see your blog. However, this limits the opportunity for sharing and interacting with the world beyond our own communities.
  • Permissions - Most services offer options for users. How much permission will you provide your students? Will they be able to post without your approval? Will they be able to upload media? Will comments have to pass through your inbox before publishing? If students are given their own blogs, this may all be out of your control.
  • Individual vs. Whole Class - There are advantages to both. Individual blogs allow students their own working environment while class blogs provide a tighter-knit community and more opportunity for collaboration. There is no right answer, but you have to decide what works best for you.
• Email Work-Arounds - Nearly every blogging site requires email addresses for blogging accounts. Most students do not have email, but there are ways to work around this.
  • Gmail - There used to be a trick for creating multiple users on one Gmail account, but Google finally caught on and did away with that option. Now, I suggest setting up Gmail accounts for students. Either this can be done through a district's tech department or by teachers. However, I strongly caution teachers to set up the accounts so that all changes and emails are forwarded to them or a dummy account. Adding email norms to your CUP's wouldn't hurt either.
  • Temporary emails - Another popular option for schools afraid of giving students email addresses is to use a temporary email service such as Guerrilla Mail, Mailinator, or 10 Minute Mail.

Widgets, Gadgets, and Add-Ons

Widgets, gadgets, and add-ons are the bells and whistles that make blogs interesting and multidimensional. Think of widgets and gadgets as tools within a blog that increase interactivity and integration with other online tools. Add-ons are usually outside tools created as a way to enhance a blog.

WordPress features a useful selection of gadgets one can add to a blog's template. By simply dragging and dropping, these simple tools can be added to any blog's sidebar. However, the number of gadgets available with WordPress has been limited. Unlike most other features, WordPress has chosen to simply this aspect of their tool. Still, most user needs are met with these tools. The gadgets interface is found under appearance.
 
 WordPress, as an open source application, allows developers to make some pretty awesome plugins. So, where WordPress lacks in widgets, it more than makes up with plugins that improve usability and integration. There are more than 18,000 plugins available that can help with everything from Twitter alignment to multimedia sharing. Plugins are easy to add when using WordPress.com, but can be difficult if you're hosting your own blog.

Gadgets are to Blogger what widgets are to WordPress. The biggest difference is that there are many, many more gadgets available. Also, users have more options for placement on pages.
Widgets and Add-Ons are also available for Tumblr. The difference is that most of Tumblr's extras exist outside of Tumblr and often require some additional programming knowledge. Most Tumblr extras are for integrating Tumblr posts with other social media and for posting from various locations. Some excellent lists are here, here, and here.

All blogging services have similar Dashboards

 WordPress has a pretty involved dashboard, including many abbreviated versions of other features such as posts, comments, stats, etc.
 
 Blogger has recently upgraded their dashboard to include many of the features found in WordPress, but it's simpler and cleaner.
 
 Tumblr's dashboard has a couple of views. One view consists of the Tumblr blogs you choose to follow and the other only contains your content. Both views offer posting options that are fast and easy to find. However, only the dash for one's specific blog offers detailed information on that blog.
  Posts
 Wordpress's posts menu provides ways to organize and change publishing settings for posts easily. It's editor interface has always been fairly comprehensive, but its new design is simpler and easier to read. Options for posting include using categories and tags as well as scheduling posts for future publication.
 Blogger once again keeps things simple, emulating the look and feel of other Google Apps. The editor is extremely uncluttered and clean in design. The move to place options to the side has made setting up publishing preferences even easier.
 Tumblr takes simplicity to the extreme. Every post is a short scroll away. Tumblr offers several different types of editors, depending on the nature of the post. Tumblr's posting setup suggests that shorter, more frequent posting is the most useful way to use this tool.
Pages
 WordPress was one of the first blogging services to offer a pages option. Think of pages as a single blog post page that links to the homepage of the blog. It's a great place to post static content or organize a blog's posts. Blogger has recently added pages to its repertoire. Its pages are setup similarly to that of WordPress, but, yet again, the options for publishing are much simpler. Tumblr has also added this option, but users must access this option via the "Customize Appearance" option in the main blog menu. Comments WordPress provides a listing of comments as they arrive in chronological order. From this menu, users can edit, respond, or trash comments. Comments can also be sent to users via email and require various levels of permission to post.
 
 Blogger also offers a running list of comments with options. Layouts/Templates/Appearances
  WordPress offers a wide array of themes and layouts. The appearance of banners and sidebars can also be adjusted to meet user needs.
 Blogger has some templates as well. Their layout tool offers more options for adding and moving components to a blog's appearance.
 Tumblr keeps it simplest of the three and offers a large number of options, both free and otherwise, for templates. Tumblr, of three services, focuses more on the content of individual posts. So, the layouts and designs are simplest.
 
Settings
 WordPress offers a huge list of setting options such as general, writing, reading, discussion, media, privacy, sharing, polls/ratings, domains, email post changes, text messaging, Open ID, and webhooks.
 Again, Blogger offers the most basic of options and those options are simplified for users.
 Tumblr barely offers any settings, but this keeps users from making too many unnecessary changes.
 What are some other features I missed? What are your questions about the features presented?

Tools of the Trade

There are many blogging tools and services out there to meet a variety of needs. Some require more technical know-how than others, but they all provide generally the same functions. Be sure to choose the service that works best for you. Today, we'll look at two main categories of blogging services. The first set includes tools that anyone can use. They provide a high level of functionality and versatility. All the things an educator could want in a blogging tool are available and more.

The following are the big players in the blogging game:

Wordpress (com/org) - WordPress comes in two forms. The first can be found at their .com address and provides hosting as well as a community of bloggers all over the globe. What makes WordPress unique is the fact that its software can be downloaded for free for those who may want to host their own blog on their work or home servers. WordPress software is highly adaptable and could be used to create a webpage that does more than the typical blog.

Blogger - Blogger is Google's blogging service. There has been talk of merging Blogger with Google+ or possibly changing the name, but as of this moment, Blogger remains Blogger. Like WordPress, Blogger offers an impressive amount of functionality. Blogger's interface is simpler and easier to navigate than WordPress's, but the service doesn't offer as many features. That said, being a Google App means that it interacts well with other Google tools and works with your existing Google account.

Tumblr - Tumblr is a cross between micro (Twitter) and macro blogging (Blogger, WordPress). It's a tool that provides instant gratification and allows other Tumbr users to follow each other and share. Tumblr lacks a bit as a traditional online publishing method, but it more than makes up for that with immediacy.

Others:

• Weebly Education - Is it a website? Is it a blog? It's both!
• TypePad
• Live Journal
• Moodle - Within Moodle, there are multiple ways to blog, but a portal really limits one's audience.

The second group provide nearly as many features as the services listed above. However, due to their main purpose of providing safety for schools and students, they have some limitations. Privacy in the services above can be set at various levels comparable to the services below, but it is not by default.

21 Classes - There are options for teacher, students, and schools to use this tool with some costing a premium.

KidBlog.org - KidBlog provides safe and simple blogging for students. All you need is proof that you work for a school and you're off and running.

Class Chatter - The always popular free service for classroom blogging.

Edublogs - The largest community of educational bloggers is located at Edublogs. This community used WordPress as their primary software.

Gaggle - Gaggle offers many safe ways to electronically communicate, including blogging.

As you can see, there are many options when choosing a blogging service. The important part is finding a service that fits your needs. Personally, I have found that services such as Blogger and WordPress offer as much privacy as the school-centric services; it just requires some work on the administrator's part. That said, if maintaining student privacy is hugely important to you, the second set of services provide such protection without much thought on the administrator's part.