Notes on Blogging

I am currently co-teaching a course at Pace University's Doctoral Program for Education Professionals called "Social Networking: Opportunities and Challenges."

One of our first topics is blogging, and so it seemed appropriate to capture my notes here, on an active blog.

Things to Consider
1. Blogging platform
2. Goal of your blog
3. What should your blog look like (look & feel).
4. Posting (talking to other people)
5. Comments (letting other people talk to you)
6. Allowing the blog to develop over time

0. What is a blog?

Just in case you don't know or are not sure, it is worth watching this video from Common Craft.

1. Blogging platform
The two most widely used blogging platforms are Google's Blogger and Wordpress. Both are pretty easy to set up and manage. Blogger plays nicely with the Google ecosystem. Wordpress has lots of features and is expandable in lots of ways.

Other things to consider in choosing a blogging platform is how it connects to the rest of your social media lifestyle/workflow. Certainly, both Blogger and Wordpress allow you to easily share to the various key social networks (Facebook, Google +, and Linked In) as well as other services, like Twitter. Since a blog is typically a part of a larger social media experience, this is something worth thinking about before you get started.

2. Goal of your blog
It is definitely worth taking some time to figure out what the goal of your blog is: what do you want to say and to whom do you want to say it?
It can also be helpful to publish the goal of your blog on your blog.

3. What should your blog look like
Since, in a very real sense, your blog is an extension of you, you should also give some thought to the look and feel of it. Both Blogger and Wordpress have tons of options for templates. You can find even more by searching the internet machines.

You may also find yourself wanting to change the look of your blog from time to time.

4. Posting
Now that your blog is set up and looking all bright and shiny, it is time to post something. Both Blogger and Wordpress have tools for producing nicely formatting and media rich posts. It is easy to insert links to other websites, upload images, and embed videos and other media.

The harder part, as with any other type of writing, is to decide on a topic, the appropriate length, and how often you want to post.

5. Comments
One of the biggest benefits of a blog is the ability to have conversations with others. Commenting is the way this happens.

Via settings on your blogging platform, you will have the ability to control the structure of the conversation: allowing commenting on certain posts or not; allowing anonymous comments or not; allowing comments to go live right away or not.

6. Allowing the blog to develop over time
Since a blog is a conversation, and, typically, a reflective one at that, your blog will probably change and evolve over time. This is a good thing.


And so it begins! Have fun with your new blog!

The Commonplace Book and Education

I just finished reading this piece by Steven Johnson. He posted a talk he recently gave at Columbia's School of Journalism on his blog.

He is talking about Commonplace books:

In its most customary form, “commonplacing,” as it was called, involved transcribing interesting or inspirational passages from one’s reading, assembling a personalized encyclopedia of quotations. It was a kind of solitary version of the original web logs: an archive of interesting tidbits that one encountered during one’s textual browsing.

He then goes on to talk about the web, with all of its inherent "linkiness" (my term) as a related concept, and one that allows the text to become productive through all of its connections to other texts, other meanings, other purposes, other agendas.

And, as usual, it made me think about the students in my classroom, and how I work to expose them to lots of different things, to try to accomplish the same thing.

The reason the web works as wonderfully as it does is because the medium leads us, sometimes against our will, into common places, not glass boxes. It’s our job—as journalists, as educators, as publishers, as software developers, and maybe most importantly, as readers—to keep those connections alive.

Blogging in a Living Room in Cuba

Yesterday morning, NPR ran this story about a woman in Cuba who has established a school -- she calls it a blogging academy -- in her living room.

Twice a week, Yoani Sanchez transforms the living room of her small Havana high-rise apartment into what she calls the Blogger Academy. About 30 students cram inside to learn how to use WordPress, Wikipedia and the other tools of a digital revolution that Cuba's government views warily.

Her desire to communicate, and empower others to communicate in politically difficult circumstances is so great that she has a system for doing so without an internet connection of her own.

It made me think of what learning can look like where there is something really at stake.

You can listen to/read about the story here.
And here is a link to her blog.

Analog Blogging

It is now so important to be connected via wired and wireless devices. We can, for example, blog from our desktops, laptops, cell phones, Blackberry devices. In the office, at home, in libraries, in coffee shots, on the subway, etc.

And this is assuming that blogging is fast enough for our communication needs.

But, what if you were in a non-connected place and wanted to comment on the world around you. How about blogging on a blackboard.

Here is a really interesting story of just such a project by a man in Monrovia. Check it out.

Unofficial, metaphorical history of classroom 2.0, Part 1

Once upon a time (so we are told by those of us inspired and beguiled by Web 2.0) some people talked and others listened, passively.

Maybe it was those ancient Druids who made sun cakes for one another in the middle of winter to beg the Sun to return. Maybe it was those

Or maybe it never really happened. Picture this: a mistral wanders into some Middle Age village with his voice, instrument, and whimsy. He begins to sing and, we are led to believe, bring some sunlight into the lives of the downtrodden peasants that fill our mental canvases of the time. Did these hard working people sit quietly to some collection of songs? Or did they, as any patron of a bar (or coffee shop) for that matter, "interact" with the singer. Perhaps they sang along. Perhaps they asked for a favorite song. Perhaps they threw rotten veggies.

In is that moment of interaction between performer and audience, I believe, that the collaborative expectations of Web 2.0 (if not the actual technology is born). We could call it the heckler theory. From pies in the face to Facebook.



(The first of a series)

Did you miss me?

After a very busy teaching year and my first year as a doctoral candidate, I decided to take the summer almost entirely off. And I was completely off from the blog.

In that time, I had some time to reflect on my practice as a teacher as well as my dissertation topic.

It seems time to get back to work.

Gmail Labs and Classrooms

The Bits blog at the New York Times had an interesting piece the other day. Entitled "The Hidden Danger of Gmail Labs," it described another Google initiative, where regular folks can develop software connected to Gmail and have it pushed to those interested.

The blog discussed the archetypal conflict between freedom and chaos which seems to be the hallmark of Web 2.0. I mean, what does happen/what will happen, when people can have a voice? Is Wikipedia the ultimate in the democratization of knowledge or the insane ramblings of well, anybody?

But any creative process alternates between tightness and looseness, between brainstorming and prioritizing. And I think that Google’s ever-expanding array of services already suffers from the ills of too many different authors.

And, by extension, what happens when students are equal participants in our schools. Do we see the transformation of education into something amazing or digital graffiti?

Check out Gmail Labs here.

Engagement

Geekymomma had a recent post about 21st century learners which was definitely worth reading.

Here's part of what she said:

The difficult part is where teachers have to come out of their comfort zones. I've taught a few classes for some local college "education technology" classes and the instructors usually ask me to teach their students about the "stuff" we have and how to use it. I'm often invited to schools to speak to faculties and mostly they want me to demonstrate some of the "stuff" we offer in our district and how to use it. So, through no fault of their own, even the instructors and the adminstrators don't always "get" that if we can teach people to think differently and to teach their students SKILLS (duh!) and use some cool tools at the same time, then there will be some terrific success. BUT WE DON'T START WITH THE TOOLS! (Do you pick up a hammer and ask yourself what you can build today?)

Here's part of my response on her blog:

I use a lot of technology in my middle school (7th and 8th grade) life science classroom. My students have used a classblog, a wiki, GoogleDocs, created podcasts, created Flash animations, etc.

All of it (all of it) has been incredibly useful and productive, for both my students and I.

I have come to believe that engagement is the issue (just like in the video) and not the technology.

Unfortunately, the cottage industry of technology tool providers would have us believe otherwise, in the archetypal "silver bullet" for education.

I so want those of us using technology to beat the drum for engagement, engagement, engagement.

I would also like to see the next, natural outcome, which is student ownership of their own learning and for the learning environment as well.

Her post also featured this video, which was very cool.

He stole the words from my mouth

I have been talking about blogging in the classroom for over a year.

Here is somebody (Mark Franek in the Christian Science Monitor) saying what I have been trying to:

My own evolution from Luddite to digital Lazarus has transformed the way I teach in my English class. I used to think that a blog was a large clog in my kitchen sink. Then last year, I took the plunge and required my students to create and maintain their own blogs, where they showcase their essays, stories, images, podcasts, and videos.

Teachers who are using blogs, social-networking sites, and video-sharing sites in school settings are giving young people the opportunity to tune their thinking and writing to a larger audience. When students know that anyone in the school with an Internet connection – or around the world, for that matter – can read what they have written or created, it is remarkable how quickly their thinking improves, not to mention the final product.

It is worth repeating his last sentence:

When students know that anyone in the school with an Internet connection – or around the world, for that matter – can read what they have written or created, it is remarkable how quickly their thinking improves, not to mention the final product.