Thing+Three


 * Thing Three**

A blog is one of the core publishing/communication tools of Web 2.0. A blog, at its simplest, is a website containing an archived series of posts (newest on top), organized by categories (or tags), with a place for readers to leave comments. Readers can subscribe to the blog using a special type of code called an RSS (or similar) feed. A blog may have one or many authors, and can be about any topic, from personal to political to professional.
 * || [[image:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2230/2047040339_8d834d228d.jpg caption="Illustration by Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis" link="@http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmk/2047040339/"]] ||
 * ** Introduction ** ||
 * ** Introduction ** ||

Blogging can provide teachers and students with an authentic opportunity to express themselves, synthesize ideas from many sources, engage in discussion and debate, write for an audience beyond the classroom, reflect on their own learning, teach and mentor others, and connect with peers and experts around the globe. As you work through the next few "Things," and the remainder of the course, you will begin to learn more about blogs and their powerful potential for personal and professional learning, reflection and communication.
 * Blogs connect ideas and people .**

** Discovery Exercise ** As you watch the video below, consider the term "NEWS" as meaning any content or topic that is relevant to you and/or your students. ** [|Blogs in Plain English] Video linked to Common Craft Page ** Like other Web 2.0 technologies, blogging connects people and ideas. There are, of course, blogs addressing pretty much every topic imaginable: Personal interests and family, education, politics, news, entertainment, arts, culture, sports, lifestyle, hobbies, social causes, technology, business, self-help, etc... Technorati's " State of the Live Web " for April 2007 reported tracking over **70 million weblogs and counting**. If you can think of it, someone's most certainly blogging about it.
 * Right now, the primary goal is to get you "up and blogging." ** Your blog is the most important component of this course. You will use your blog to document your learning, discoveries and experimentation throughout the course. For tips on using Edublogs and maximizing your blogging experience, visit our Edublogs Help page.

Read __at least five__ of the blog posts below. They are intended to give you just a tiny sampling of a few voices and blogging styles (BY NO MEANS EVEN REMOTELY REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL THAT IS OUT THERE!) of teachers and students in the "EduBlogosphere," which is the category encompassing education-related bloggers and blogs. Take some time to read the comments as well, as commenting is one of the most significant aspects of blogging. Next week, you will set up your RSS reader and subscribe to a few blogs that spark your interest.
 * Blogging is more than writing.** Blogging is reading, reflecting, questioning, researching, synthesizing, linking, conversing, teaching, sharing and expressing ideas. Blogging is about writing, but blogging begins with reading.

As you read, consider the following questions. Feel free to adapt and expand on any of these or add your own.:
 *  What do you notice about the genre of blog writing in general?(p. 28 in textbook speaks to this topic)


 *  (How) is blog reading different from other types of reading? How is it similar?


 *  (How) is blog writing different from other types of writing? How is it similar?


 *  How does commenting contribute to the writing and meaning-making?


 *  Is there a "blogging literacy?" How does blogging affect the way we read and write?


 *  (How) can blogging facilitate learning?

**Sample Blog Posts** (Select Five)  There are 142 comments on this post as of August, 2008. You don't have to read them all - says something about the provocativeness of the post, though!
 *  dy/dan (Mr. Meyer): **Why I Don’t Assign Homework **
 * **Mrs. Edmison's Class:** Questions for One of Our Favorite Authors: Grace Lin>> Third grade students receive a special blog comment from a beloved author answering their questions about writing.

 A third grade teacher describes a "new" kind of Sustained Silent Reading.
 * **Mark’s Edtech Blog: ** Is this SSR 2.0?

 This is an example of a " Scribe Post ," as "invented" by calculus teacher Darren Kuropatwa, in which a student (8th grader in this case) reviews the classroom learning for the day or week. The teacher sets guidelines for the quality of work and students who exceed the requirements have an opportunity to be nominated into the " Scribe Hall of Fame ."
 * **SP-817 Math Blog:** Boeun's Scribe for December 4th

 Vicki Davis talks about the realities of teaching in a society where every cell phone is a recording device. Vicki Davis is someone you want to know about!
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**CoolCatTeacher (Vicki Davis):** Spies Like Us


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Extreme Biology -** This site is maintained by Ms. Baker and her biology students. They live in the Northeast U.S. and blog about anything biology-related.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Anne Davis, an edublogging pioneer from Georgia State University, has been blogging with elementary school students since 2002. In this post, she enumerates her reasons for blogging with students.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span class="wiki_link_ext">EduBlog Insights (Anne Davis): ** A Rationale for Educational Blogging


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Discourse About Discourse:** The Ripe Environment


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**NeverEnding Search:** PowerPoint Reform - A First Chapter - High school librarian Joyce Valenza shares highlights from her presentation for senior English classes on how to stop making miserable PowerPoint presentations.Good points and good resources.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This post was written by an at-risk fifth grader who struggled with writing and school success in general. Anne Davis shares it as an example of the importance of comments in blogging.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Patrick's Update**: 5th Grade

<span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Ed tech visionary Will Richardson takes a break from "blog-vangelizing" to ask a question about plastic grocery bags.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Weblogg-ed (Will Richardson):** Why Can't We Do This?

> Award-winning elementary blog about an unexpected guest. Be sure to click the duck to read the students' stories. >
 * **Duck with a Blog:** Second graders Write About Our Missing Duck
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Wandering Ink:** How To Prevent Another Leonardo Da Vinci -An argument about the ways in which the current education system and adolescent culture discourage creative thought. (If this interests you, you may want to view Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity? ).

**Learning Tasks**

**TASK:** Blog Post - Topic: Blogs

Create a blog post in response to the exploratory reading and questions listed below. Don't forget that your textbook is an excellent source of information to inform your answers to the reflective questions below!!!!


 * <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px; text-align: left;">What do you notice about the genre of blog writing in general?
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px;"> (How) is blog reading different from other types of reading? How is it similar?


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px;"> (How) is blog writing different from other types of writing? How is it similar?


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px;"> How does commenting contribute to the writing and meaning-making?


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px;"> Is there a "blogging literacy?" How does blogging affect the way we read and write?

Feel free to reflect on anything that struck you about the posts themselves itself or the genre of blogging in general. Be sure to include a link to any post(s) you refer to. (**NOTE:** Because blogs are frequently updated, the "front page" content is always changing. When linking to a blog post, you need to use the **Permalink,** which is the direct, permanent link to that post.)


 * HELP video:** Adding links from blog posts


 * HELP:**
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px;"> How to leave a comment on someone's blog


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Verdana,Lucida,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-bottom: 2px;"> Managing comments on your own blog