During a time when most of the US and much of the world is facing funding shortfalls in education, sadly technology budgets are often one of the first to be slashed. Is this a good place to start? While I never thought so, I didn’t until now have any good hard evidence to back that up.

Being a bit numbers obsessed (I was a math teacher in my former days), I enjoy spending my time looking over the site visitor statistics for Edublogs. This morning I found myself taking a look at the number of visitors from each state in the US.

I wanted to know if the number of visitors we get from each state is proportional to the number of students in each state.

I was expecting to find that our visitors would be randomly and equitably distributed around the country.

But I was wrong. There were a few states that seemed to have much higher traffic than what their population would suggest. There were also a handful of states that were severely underrepresented.

There are many factors that could account for this – such as access to computers in the classroom or the existence of local or statewide blogging platforms other than Edublogs. Or perhaps blogging just isn’t that states thing and we haven’t done a good enough job letting them know about it.

However, then I visited this site here for the most recent and comprehensive rankings on state achievement that I could find.

What you see in the table below may shock you. I went through and identified the states that are 8 or more away in “Edublogs Ranking” either direction than you would expect based on their population.

Three out of five of the lowest performing states also are underrepresented in their use of Edublogs. And all of the underrepresented states are in the bottom third on achievement.

Even more interesting (er, exciting) is that three out of the top five performing states visit Edublogs more than you would expect based on their population! And all overrepresented states are in the top half of performance.

I’m not suggesting at all that Edublogs is responsible for the achievement (though that would be nice), but clearly, states that make technology use available to students do appear to have a significant advantage here.

Being the math nerd that I am, I will admit that I haven’t applied any tests of statistical significance to the data here nor do I share this as if I have done formal research on the matter. However, even cursory data such as this shows that technology in the classroom can be powerful!

What do you think?

I used this site here for the state demographic information. The “Edublogs Ranking” was taken from Google Analytics based on several million visitors over the past 30 days.

The idea was simple!

Create a class blog list for educators to use as a resource to get ideas for their own class blog and make connections with classes in other countries.

Now over 2 years later since the class blog list was first created in 2008:

1. It’s still growing
2. It’s the most visited page on this blog

But like all good ideas it does take work

So it’s now been updated to ensure that it does remain current and contain resources that are helpful.

This update I’ve looked at how else can I make it a better resource?

Improved Categories

Firstly, I wanted to make it easier for you to find the class blogs for the grades and/or subjects you teach.

So I’ve improved the categories to better separate:

1. Primary / Elementary into each Grade level
2. Secondary / High into subject areas.

Updated All Blogs

Next, I’ve checked every blog on the list and removed any that have been:

1. Deleted
2. No longer exist
3. Are no longer active (haven’t updated within 6 months)
4. Have changed their privacy from public to private.

And off course, made sure all new blogs submitted were added to the list.

Class Blogging Since ?

Finally. with over 200 class blogs on the list, I wanted to make a way for you to be able to quickly scan the list while learning more about the age of specific blogs.

So I’ve added an icon next to the older class blogs to show how long that blog has been used as a class blog for.

For example, means the blog has been used for class blogging since 2004 whereas a blog with  has been used as a class blog since 2009.

I’m sure others, like myself, will be amazed at how long some of these blogs have been used for class blogging!

Is your Class blog on the List?

You can check out the more information about each class blog in these post:

• Calling All CLASS blogs…Please Share Your Blog URL With Us! (2008) over 250 comments.
• Our Class Blog List Has Been Updated — Is Your Class Blog on The List? (2010) over 190 comments

I’ve now had to close off comments on both those posts so I can make the class blog submissions manageable again.

If you want to add your class blog to this list (or update your class blog details) leave a comment on this post to share with us:

1. Your Class Blog name(s) and URL(s).
2. Approximate age of students
3. What category does the blog belong to?  Primary, Secondary, Vocational Education and Training, College, University, Home School?  If applicable. what subject areas?  Refer to the category list on Our check out Class blogs page.
4. Country
5. Age of class blog.  Blogging since?
6. Feel free to add other information as educators do refer to comments left to connect with other class blogs!

Please check the Check out Class Blogs list first before providing updated information.

Here’s an example of the type of information needed:

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?

Here you go!

Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.

Enjoy and hope you find it helpful!

P.S. Was created for Teacher Challenge — read more on the Teacher challenge’s About page.

What is a Blog?

The term blog originated from the blend of the term “web log”.

Nowadays blogs compete with mainstream media in delivering news and information.  Important events, war coverage and celebrity deaths are often reported quicker and more accurately on blogs and Twitter than traditional news service.

Why?  Because any one can easily set up their own blog and share their thoughts (known as their voice) online.

Blogs are written on just about any subject and for a wide range of purposes, including personal, business, work and sharing news stories.

Reasons why educators blog include:

Examples of educational blogs:

Here’s some examples of educational blogs to check out:

1. Teachers Personal blogs:
   • Free Technology for Teachers
   • Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day
   • Langwitches
   • Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom
2. Class blogs:
   • 2KM@ Leopold Primary School
   • Blog, Blog Blog Blog, Blog Some More
   • Mr. Salsich’s Class
   • Mrs. Yollis’ Class Blog!
   • The Ins and Outs
3. Student blogs:
   • Rhiannon’s Blog – Grade 2
   • Millie’s Marvellous Blog – Grade 2
   • BB`s awesome blog – Grade 2
   • Grace’s Blog – Grade 7
   • Chemistry: It’s “Element”-ary!! – Grade 10
4. Other useful sites
   • The Edublog Awards website
   • International Edublogs Directory
   • Education blogs listed on PostRank

The Basic Structure of a Blog

Blogs are normally made up of the following main elements:

1.  Dashboard

This is the back-end area of your blog where you make changes and edits.  This area is only accessible to logged in blog administrators, editors, authors, contributors or subscribers.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

1. Logging into your blog
2. Using your blog dashboard

2. Theme

Usually one of the first things bloggers do is pick out a theme.  This is the template or look of the blog that people see when they visit your blog.

This is what gives it your personal touch.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• Changing your blog look
• What to consider when choosing your blog theme
• Changing your blog’s theme

3. Theme layout

Blog themes normally include a header, a content area (for your posts), sidebar area (for your widgets) and come in several standard layouts:

• Single column with no sidebar (widgets are located at the bottom of the blog)
• Two Column – normally a wide column for content and narrower sidebar
• Three Column – with sidebars side-by-side on one side of the blog or either side of the wider content column
• Four Column – one content column and three sidebars. The content column is often the same width as the other columns. This type of layout tends to be cluttered looking and less suited to reading lengthy content.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• What to consider when choosing your blog theme
• The 137 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier

4.  Header

The header is the area at the top of a blog where the blog title, graphics, and possibly navigational links appear.

Using your own custom image header means you can obtain a much more customized look and feel adding your “own personal touch” to your blog.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• Uploading your custom image header

5.  Posts

Posts are where you normally publish the latest upodate or new article on a blog.  They are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order with the most recent post at the top of the page.

Most of the content published on a blog is normally written as Posts.   E.g, information on what’s happening in your classroom, assignment instructions, homework and discussion topics are normallypublished as Posts and not on Pages.

Blogs are designed to have only one Post page which normally displays on the homepage of the blog.  Check out The Edublogger to see how posts are displayed in reverse chronological order on the home page.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• The Differences between Pages and Posts
• Writing your first post
• Adding Categories and Tags into your Posts
• Editing Posts

6. Comments

Posts commonly allow readers to publish comments on the posts they read.  This is where the reader can share their thoughts, connect with the blogger and interact with other readers.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• Engaging Readers through comments
• Controlling who can comment on posts
• Managing, editing and approving comments
• Enabling threaded comments
• Writing links in Comments

7.  Pages

You normally use pages for information that you want to share with your readers but don’t expect to update frequently.  Not all blogging software includes the ability to add Pages.

The most common type of page you’ll find on a blog is an About Page.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• The Differences between Pages and Posts
• What is An About Page

8.  Sidebar

The location and even existence of sidebars depend on your theme.  Some themes even have 3 or more sidebars.  You can add and rearrange widgets in your sidebars using your blog dashboard.

The most common theme layout are two columns with one sidebar and on content area.

9.  Widget

These are the blocks that make up sidebars.  Popular widgets include the ability to subscribe to a blog, user statistics, and suggested links.

Here’s where you’ll find more information on:

• Changing your sidebar widgets
• Top widgets for the sidebar of your class or student blog

10.  RSS

RSS is an acronym which stands for Really Simple Syndication.

In simple terms, RSS is a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the website to check for new updates.

How it works is you subscribe to your favorite website using the RSS feed in a RSS feed reader such as Google Reader.  Whenever new information is added to the website it is automatically sent to your RSS feed reader  where you can read it at your convenience.

For example, whenever your favorite blogger publishes a new post it is automatically sent to your Feed reader.

Sites with RSS feeds are normally indicated with the word RSS and/or the orange RSS icon.

For more information:

1. Watch RSS in Plain English
2. Follow these instructions to subscribe to blogs using Google Reader — just replace the student blogs with your favorite blogs and news services

Please note :

• Blogs on all standard blogging platforms automatically include RSS feeds and don’t necessarily use words or an icon to indicate the presence of the RSS feed.  For all Edublogs, the rss feed is found by going to yourblog.edublogs.org/feed.
• RSS lets you do lots of cool stuff including adding latest updates from your favorite blog(s) or news website(s) to your own site using RSS widgets like FeedWind’s RSS widget

Final  Thoughts

For those wanting to know more about the Teacher Challenge — it is commencing in January.  Each Challenge involves free 30 day professional development where participants are stepped through weekly tasks.

And you can:

1. Read more about the Teacher challenge on our About page.
2. Leave a comment on Are you interested…..? post if you would like to join as a participant
3. Add your details to the Mentors – sign up page if you would like to help us by beng a mentor

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Here’s the news the students have been waiting patiently for!

It’s time to announce the winners of ” The Edublogger’s Share Your Blogging Experience“.  A big thanks to everyone who entered.

And the winners are:

Art ‘n’ Articles (Grade 6 student)

I’m not even going to attempt to summarise Rebecca’s post.  She’s a better writer than I’ll ever be!

Check out how passionately she expresses her feelings for writing.

My Blog! (Grade 9 student)

Dominique explains that blogging is a great way to broaden your view of the World and other cultures.  She has interacted with people from so many countries and cultures since she first started blogging in 2009.

Leawood Middle School Blogs

Mrs R. asked her students to provide feedback on what they think of blogging, how it has helped you learn and have you liked learning this way.

From their 60 comments she created a “MUST READ” post on the Top 10 ways blogging has made a difference in your life at school.

Super 7  Scoopers@St Clair

The Scooper’s explain how their class blog has changed considerably over the year;  from teacher driven tool for modeling shared reading and writing sessions and sharing in learning activities with families to students driven tool where the students decide what is blogged and which web 2 tools they use to publish.

Blogging has changed their classroom practises and outcomes of students’ writing.

Check out the Scooper’s excellent video on what a difference blogging makes!

4/5 S

Sam reports that it’s impressive how many students continue to edit and publish work from home after school.  Many of these students do not submit regular homework, but will work in their own time on our blog.

41 Weeks With 5/6C

5/6 C says that their blogging experience has allowed them to look at literacy in a new more modern way. “What is so rewarding about this new literacy approach is that suddenly our class’s reading and writing activities became more purposeful and authentic!”.

Ms. Bush’s Blogging Bunch

Ms. Bush explains that through blogging her students are able to connect wtih each other from outside the classrom, in their comfort of their own homes, while challenging each other of heavy literacy weights like Toni Morrison and William Shakespeare.

Coleman’s blog (Grade 6 student)

Coleman says that the most important things he learned from blogging aren’t about technology; the most important things are about other cultures, good ethics, and how to connect to other people.

Jessica’s Fantastic Blog

Jessica’s reports that it wasn’t until she had her own blog that she realised how amawing and fun it is to blog.  She says blogging has improved her writing making her feel more confident and sure about what she is writing about.

Shirley’s 6th Grade – Alexandra’s post (Grade 6 student)

Alexandra wrote an incredibly detailed post on six tasks she would include if she was in charge of the Student Blogging Challenge.

The Digiridoos (Grade 4 students)

I can’t choose between the Digiridoo students

And their great approach to what they would include if they were in charge of the Student Blogging Challenge inspired my Befunky, Photopeach, and Sketchfu – it’s what students want to do! post.

So I’ve decided the only fair thing to do is give the Digiridoos five Edublogs Pro subscriptions and their teacher can decide how their used

Thanks Anna, Bree, Danielle,  Ella,  Ethan, Evan, Finn, Flynn, Grace, Ia, Jack , Jakob, Laura, Millar, Reif, Sumayah, Tyler, Zara!

Your own choice of topic winners

The students really came into their own in their own choice of topic.

This is where many of the students demonstrated:

1. Their incredible writing skills
2. Ability to reflect on their thoughts
3. That blogging really can give student’s a voice where they can share their opinions on socially important issues.

I attempted to summarise their work and failed badly   — it really didn’t do justice to their amazing work.

Instead I encourage you to check out their winning posts:

• Addie’s Unnoticed post is a deep reflective post on what we do and don’t notice in life (Grade 5 student)
• Vaishnavi’s Best Friends Forever post shares the story of her best friend (Grade 6 student)
• Joseph’s The Original Social Network post discusses why he thinks ant colonies are the original social network (Grade 6 student)
• Rohan’s Does Patriotism still matter? post highlights his thoughts on patriotism (Grade 6 student)
• Rishika’s An experience of a lifetime post reminding us that life is what you make it (Grade 6 student)
• Grace’s In our post on forgotten people and we can make a difference (Grade 7 student)
• Dani’s win win win! yeah boy! post on cyberbullying (Grade 8 student)
• Suman’s Meeting Other little People post reminds us all that we all like to met others like ourselves

Winners Badge

Congratulations to all winners!

Here’s a badge if you would like to add to your sidebar.

Please send an email to tell me if you want to use the free 12 months Edublogs Pro subscription on your own blog or to give away to a reader.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Choosing the winners was incredibly hard due to so many excellent entries.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

What are fun (and educational!) activities to do with students that they can also embed into blogs and other websites like wikis?

Who better to tell us then the students themselves!

So here is a list of tools compiled from recommendations by the Digiridoos, a group of Year 4/5 (9-10 year olds),  who each shared what they would include if they were in charge of the Student Blogging Challenge.

Befunky

Befunky is quick and simple tool for transforming digital photos into instant art work or digital comics.

Extensive range of effects, speech bubbles, accessories, graphics and lot’s of objects that you can add to your pictures.

Great for expressing creativity while having fun and providing cool images for spicing up your blog!

PhotoPeach

PhotoPeach is one of the fastest and easiest ways of creating a story or quiz using photos.

It’s as simple as:

1. Uploading your photos
2. Adding music
3. Adding your captions.

Presto!  You’ve created a story that you can embed as a slideshow into your blog post.

Here’s detailed instructions on how to create and embed a PhotoPeach.

Check out the example of a PhotoPeach Quiz below:

Learn more about animals on PhotoPeach

PollDaddy

Polldaddy is one of the most recognized tools for creating online polls and surveys.

Polls provide different opportunities for gauging readers opinions compared to just asking questions in blog posts.

Not all readers feel comfortable leaving comments in responses to questions.

Polls means readers can express their opinion while maintaining their anonymity.

They also provide you and visitors to your blog the chance to gain a sense of how your readers feel on topics since most online poll tools display the results once a visitor has voted.

Check out the example of a PollDaddy Poll below:

Sketchfu

Sketchfu is a simple tool for creating your own cool animations online that can easily be embedded into your blog post.

Here’s an example of a Sketchfu embedded below:

Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!

Storybird

Storybird is a simple to use online digital story telling tool which provides amazing artwork for building your story.

Creating your own storyboard is as simple as choosing a theme (layout),  selecting the art work you would like to use and then writing your story.  With Storybird anyone can create great-looking digital picture book stories.

Here’s an example of a Storybird embedded below:

The Secretest Secret Agent Secret Cat on Storybird

Voki

Voki speaking avatars are cool and lots of fun to create.

They’re used to add a human element to your blogs.

Here’s detailed instructions on how to create and embed a Voki.

Check out an example of a Voki below:

Get a Voki now!

Wall Wisher

Wallwisher is an online notice board creator.

It’s a really fast and easy way to create engaging activities to use with students.

It’s as simple as:

1. Create your Wallwisher
2. Add some sticky notes
3. Embed into your Blog Post
4. Add more sticky notes

The sticky notes can be as simple as text only OR very creative with images, audio, video, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts (basically almost anything you can link to via their URL)!

And students don’t need to have a Wallwishers account to use it!

Here’s detailed instructions on how to create and embed a Wall Wisher.

Embedding into blog posts

Embedding is as simple as:

1.  Completely write your post including adding title, text, images, tags and categories.

2.  Click on Save Draft, previewed your post and make all necessary edits.

3.  Copy the embed code.

4.  Click on HTML Tab on your blog post.

4.  Paste the embed code for your PhotoPeach into your post where you want it to appear then immediately click Publish

• Don’t click back to Visual Tab before hitting Publish as it can break the embed code.
• Immediately close your post once you’ve published.
• Change back to Visual Editing mode when you write your next post by clicking on the Visual tab.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to Digiridoos for sharing your favorite online tools!

What online tools would you add onto their list?

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One of the most common questions we’re asked in our Edublogs live webinars is how do you encourage educators to engage in the use of technology with their students.

Many of us face this challenge.

So when Ryan Turner, an Elementary Principal, was telling me about the success of his school-wide blogging program I asked if he would share his story.

Please note that while Ryan’s School District is using one of our Edublogs Campus sites, which makes it easier to take a coordinated approach, the principles of the processes he uses are applicable to any blogging platform or technology.

As your reading through the questions and his answers, watch out for how the administration model technology use and that the blogs are also making it easier for fellow teachers to collaborate and learn from each other.

1.  What has been the outcome of your program so far?

The teachers are loving the blogs. At first I had to require them to update at least once a week. Now they are posting often without prompting. Plus they are using each others’ blogs to teach their students.

More and more, parents are turning on to the subscription feature that turns our blogs into a dynamic site that works for us, from a static site that was inactive.  The blogs are loved by the School Board as well.

I have not gotten the teachers into advanced blogging, but they have really embraced the ease of posting as well as the ease of uploading images. They’ve begun to view our other teachers’ blogs and borrow and steal ideas for use in their classrooms. It’s very exciting!!!

2. How did you introduce them to the blogging program?

I had previously mentioned blogs to the staff in a meeting about the migration to blogs as an effective form of communication.

The link was sent out the last day before school began to all faculty to the home of the Blogs site for our District and got them to explore the blogs.  During that time, I encouraged them to sign up for a blog and begin to explore the dashboard.

I set a date for all faculty to have a blog set up by. At that point I put on a training for those who needed it.

In the meantime, I set up an Elementary School blog where I began to post important information and images, videos, etc. I encouraged the staff to subscribe to the blog, using the subscribe by email option.

3.  How much time did you give your staff from the time they were sent the link to they had to have a blog set up?

The teachers were given 6 weeks before the blogs were required.

Each week, I sent out an email to the teachers outlining the events for the week.

Each message encouraged the teachers that if they had not yet set up a blog, that the time was approaching where the blogs must be set up.

3.   What training did you offer and when was it provided?

The training was provided at the end of the 6 week exploration period as a workshop that lasted about 1 hour and took place at the tail-end of a faculty meeting.

If the teachers were already comfortable with the blogs, they were not required to attend.  The remaining were assisted in everything from setting up the blog, to learning the dashboard, to widgets to appearances. When the teachers began, it was a great training with the more advanced assisting those who were not so advanced.

The only thing that I showed the teachers how to do was make one post, add one image, and showed the website Smilebox.com. After that, several teachers would come by during their planning periods and get assistance on a one to one basis.

I also showed teachers blogs from other School Districts: Prairiland Patriot blogs (Prairiland ISD) and Roughneck Blogs and ePortfolio (White Oak ISD).

4.  How many of the teachers out of the total number of teachers in the school did you require to set up a blog?

The only teachers that I have control over are the ones at the Elementary School. Our Superintendent really spoke highly of the blogs and encouraged the use of the blogs, so we put the effort in at the elementary school. Other schools within our district, the Junior High and High School, have access to the blogs, but they have been slower taking off.

Only the regular population teachers in our school were required the blogs. Special populations: Special Education, Dyslexia, and English Language Learners were not included within the launch of blogs because of privacy issues involved and protections provided through Federal and State Laws.

There are 27 teachers on staff at my campus who are regular instruction. Each of these have a blog, with the addition of the Aide who teaches Music and the Library Aide.

5.  Have even the most resistant become involved?

Being a new principal in the district, I spoke of the need, the positive opportunities that the blogs would provide, and the need to advance technologically.

I did not give an option as far as the implementation. Those more seasoned teachers were a little behind the learning curve, and their blogs still do not have the amount of flash or appeal of those who have been more receptive along the way.

6. Also how did you make it a requirement to post once weekly? Did you use any incentive?

With weekly lesson plans, I wanted the parents to have a place to turn to that would allow them to have a window into our classroom. We are pushing to have a more transparent classroom, where the parents are more active in the classrooms.

With Smart Phones and so many portable Email devices, we really wanted to make sure that we provide the opportunity to have in their hands the information that will allow the students to be more successful.

No incentives were offered. I am including, however, the blogs as a part of their summative observation for the end of the year. I do check the blogs on a regular basis and have the blogs set up on our Blogs Directory to reorder based on the latest blog updated being located on the front.

The blog site is also set up to show the latest posts and the latest comments site-wide.

I visit the teachers blogs and comment on great things that I see happening. Our Superintendent also visits and comments, encouraging the blogs to continue achieving.

7. What other small things have you shown them that have made a difference?

The biggest thing that I’ve seen make a difference in our blogs has been the teachers viewing other teachers’ blogs. They see what things are out there and try to imitate and even improve upon.

The other thing that I’ve see in previous settings, as well as the current setting of myself being a principal: Technology cannot progress unless campus leadership provides an example and buys into the technology.

Our superintendent has a blog and he sets an example that he won’t ask others to do something that he is not willing to do themselves. Leadership must be in a position that they lead by example. I try to do that through example and also through prodding along and providing assistance.

The other thing I would say:  keep it simple.

Don’t introduce too many concepts at once. The reason that I showed how to make one post: they will figure out what they need to make the blogs more useable for them. The teachers will develop their own style and techniques.

Final Thoughts

Would love to hear your stories!

1. What has worked well?
2. What hasn’t worked?

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Miss Loose’s blog left the following comment on a post:

We recently had a presentation on Internet safety through our State Attorney General’s Office.

The special agent advised us that there shouldn’t be any info given that could help predators identify where our students live and go to school.

I am just wondering what your opinion is regarding this.

I understand the practicality and reality of using my full name, but I’m worried about how it could link me to my students and, in turn, allow predators to link up to my students.

Anyone could search my name and find out where I teach, what grade I teach, etc. I look forward to hearing your thoughts or directing me to other discussion of this topic. Thanks so much.

And it got me thinking……

There are widely differing opinions on Internet Safety, building digital literacy skills and working with students online.

It would be so much better if we all shared opinions and advice so we could all gain ideas from each other.

We would love to hear your thoughts and advice:

1. What advice would you give to educators new to working with students online?
2. What advice do you give your students about Internet Safety?  How do you educate them on this?  What resources do you use?
3. How much identifying do you allow (or are you allowed) for yourself and your students?
4. What other aspects should we be talking about?

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It is now time to join in on the bi-annual student blogging challenge!

This challenge is all about having fun, improving blogging and reflective writing skills, and building readership and connections with a global audience.

Last year, the two challenges included thousands of students from over 15 countries around the world!

What is  the Student Blogging Challenge?

• The Student Blogging Challenge runs twice yearly.  A new Challenge starts March and September, each year.
  
• It is made up of a series of 10 weekly tasks all designed to improve blogging and commenting skills while connecting students with a global audience.
  
• Starts mid-September – but registration is happening now
• The Challenge is open to both class blogs and to individual student bloggers from all over the world and of all ages – blogs doesn’t need to be hosted by Edublogs to participate!
• Participants can complete as many of the tasks as they like and in any order
• The Student Blogging Challenge is coordinated by Sue Wyatt,  Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt.

Past challenges have included adding comics and widgets, writing creative posts, discussing travelling, comment etiquette, and more.

How do I start?

We’ve now opened registration for students and teachers who would like to participate in the challenge which starts in mid September.

Here’s the links you need to visit to register:

• Teachers – register your class blogs here
• Students – register your individual blogs here

Who’s registered so far?

You can check who has registered so far here:

• Teachers – heres’ where you’ll find all the class blogs listed
• Students – here’s where you’ll find all the individual student bloggers

How do I get the latest news from the Student Blogging Challenge?

All weekly tasks and upcoming events will be published on Challenge Yourself to Blog (the Student Blogging Challenge blog).

We recomend you either subscribe to:

1. The Challenge Yourself to Blog RSS feed using a feed reader like Google Reader – here’s how to set up Google Reader
2. The Challenge Yourself to Blog email – just add your email address to the form below

Do you have any ideas for challenge tasks?

This is the fifth challenge Sue Wyatt have organized.  She would love  ideas for cool challenge activities.

Please help with ideas for challenge activities by sharing your ideas here!

And for extra incentive to share your ideas — we’ve decided to give away ten Edublogs Pro 12 month subscriptions (formerly known as Edublogs Supporters) to the 10 best challenge ideas!

Can you help us?

Every challenge, Sue Wyatt tries to visit each individual student blog at least 3 times over the period of the challenge.

This is becoming harder to visit all the student blogs — due to the numbers of students participating!

We are looking for volunteers who are willing to leave least one, preferably two, comments on student blogs such as:

1. A few clues about how to set up their blogs would be great for the newer students who have only had their blogs less than a week or so .
2. Alternatively choose a post they have written or look at their about page to leave a comment for them.

We would like to do is allocate about 20-30 student blogs to each volunteer.

This is excellent for teachers and preservice teachers (student teachers) who are:

• Wanting to increase their understanding of how blogs can be used with students.
• Unable to participate with their students in our current Challenge but who want to learn more about the Student Blogging Challenge.

Also excellent for students who have participated in previous Student Blogging Challenges and who would love to support other student bloggers!

And off course, we appreciate how busy everyone is so we’ve decided to give away twenty free Edublogs Pro 12 month subscriptions (formerly known as Edublogs Supporters) to our twenty best helpers!

Please leave a comment on this post if you would like to become a Student Blogging Helper!  Can you also tell which age group of students you would like to work with!

And here’s your badges

We thought some of you might like to add badges to your blogs to let your readers know you’re participating in the Student Blogging Challenge.

So here they are!

For Better Bloggers

For Better Commenters

For Student Blogger Helper

Adding your badge(s) to your blog is as easy as:

1.  Download this Student Challenge Zip file – contains the HTML code for all badges with links back to the Student Blogging Challenge blog
2.  Unzip the downloaded file to a folder on your hard drive.
3.  Open up badgecode.txt (contained inside the zip file)
4.  Copy the HTML code for the required badge(s)

5.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard
6.  Drag and drop a Text Widget from the Available Widgets or Inactive Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right
7.  Now just paste your HTML code into the text widget, then click Save and Close

Setting up your class-blog

You may be just getting started with your class blog or are looking for ways to make improvements.

The following 9 steps will help ensure that your blog is ready to go for the challenge:

1. Set up your class blog
2. Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines
3. Teaching Commenting Skills and Etiquette – Guest post byKathleen McGeady
4. Help Parents Connect With Your Class Blog
5. Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts
6. Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
7. Setting Up Student blogs
8. Add your student blogs to your blogroll
9. Add Your Student Blogs To A Folder In Google Reader

FINAL THOUGHTS

The thousands of students that have participated in the past have found it a great way to improve their blogging and commenting skills and love the global interaction among the community that it builds.

For more information on the student blogging challenge, visit the Challenge F.A.Q. here.

Please leave a comment on this post if you would like to become a Student Blogging Helper!
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Can you help?

I’ve been asked for advice for blogging with ESL/EFL students.

I’m sure that ESL/EFL educators and their students will provide the best advice.  So I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Larry Ferlazzo’s Thoughts

And to get the conversation started Larry Ferlazzo (from Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day……For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL) has kindly shared his quick thoughts on blogging with ESL/EFL students:

1. Help students get email addresses
2. Compile a list of user names and passwords because someone will forget theirs.
3. Choose a blogging solution that includes an option for leaving an audio comment as it is a MUST – (if you use Edublogs.org you need to use either a Pro blog or Campus blog)
4. Identify some very, very simple tasks that students can do (refer to my Class website Intermediate English for ideas) and then they just have to paste the URL address of their creation in the comments.
   • They’ll get used to the tech that way.
   • Model on a computer projector each task and what is required so everyone sees.
5. Next, have students leave audio and written comments.  Highlight examples on computer projector.
6. Gradually use more complex tasks, like on my class blog.
   • Students can paste essays they write in the comments section, but should type them out in Word first to take advantage of grammar and spell check.
   • However, first, they should write it out longhand so they don’t get intimidated by all the mistakes Word will show them making.

Your thoughts

Would love to hear your thoughts!

1. What have you found works well?
2. What hasn’t worked well?
3. Do you have any questions on blogging with ESL/EFL students you would like answered?

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Richard Byrne and I co-hosted an ISTE Unplugged session on blogging at ISTE 2010 in Denver.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their blogging questions and here’s my responses — for those who were unable to attend!

I’ve focused my responses to student blogging and will do a follow up post on the general blogging questions.

What sort of rubric do you use for blogging?

There are opposing opinions on whether you should or shouldn’t use a blogging rubric; and if you do use a rubric how you would use it.

Konrad Glogowski’s posts are a ‘must read’ to appreciate the need to move the emphasis from grading to focusing on blogging conversations:

• Thoughts on Assessment
• How To Grow A Blog
• Replacing Grades with Conversations
• Making Assessments Personally Relevant
• Towards Reflective BlogTalk

For examples of blogging rubrics check out:

1. Clarence Fisher’s Blogging Rubric
2. Ryan Bretag’s Blogging Rubric post and Blogging Rubic

How do you have students blog for homework if they do not have access to the internet or a computer (in a poor, rural area)?

Steven Anderson covered this during our session by explaining how his schools provide open lab computer access for students without access at home.

What I didn’t have time to mention is some are using alternative approaches to providing a solution.

For example, in Scott Newcombe’s School District they are providing students with mobile phones which could be used for mobile blogging.

To moderate or not who has the time?

Educators have differing opinions on moderation and use two main approaches:

1. Students are allowed to publish own posts and approve all comments
2. Students posts and comments aren’t published until approved by a teacher

Normally those that moderate are either required to by School and/or District policy or are concerned by the risk of inappropriate content being published.

Here’s how you moderate all comments and posts on student blogs — if you need to/want to take this approach.

Those that don’t moderate all comments and posts generally spend a lot of time educating their students about blogging processes and appropriate online behaviour.

It’s common with this approach to see students’ slowly progress from writing comments on the class blog to publishing posts on the class blog to eventually having their own blog.

Good practice with this approach is to monitor all comments and posts from student posts using Google Reader — here is how you do this.  Google Reader makes it easier to monitor all the student content and if necessary deal with inappropriate content.

Could people please share ways to increase the audience for their students’ blogs? Students are excited and motivated when they begin blogging – but without a real audience, excitement and motivation begin to diminish.

What can we do to increase readership?  How can a student blogger attract more readers?

Realizing that your blog is being read by a global audience and receiving comments from readers in other countries is highly motivating for student bloggers.  It encourages them to blog and improve their writing.

Here’s examples of how you can help your students attract more readers:

1.  #comments4kids

The #comments4kids hashtag is used by educators to tweet student posts that deserves to be commented on such as a post that is awesome or student that needs encouragement.

Here’s more information about #comments4kids:

1. #comment4kids Wednesday
2. Comments4kids wiki

2.  Student blogging challenge

The Student Blogging Challenge is run twice yearly starting in March and September.

It runs for 10 weeks where students are given weekly task designed to improve their blogging skills while connecting them with a Global audience.

I’m wondering how best to create a scenario in which students blog 3-4 times per week, but also a site that will work as a legitimate social network for the course as well (groups, pages, etc.).

What’s the best way of going about putting together such a network?

BuddyPress is one of the best ways of transforming a fully functional blogging platform into a social network.

BuddyPress is a suite of plugins for Wordpress that transforms into a fully functional social network platform.  It is very similar to using a Ning site, except BuddyPress doesn’t have Ning’s blogging limitations as it’s a multi-blogging platform environment integrated with a fully functional social network platform.

Here’s more information on BuddyPress:

1. The BuddyPress Manual
2. WordPress as a Learning Management System – Move over, Blackboard

Check and try a BuddyPress site for yourself here!

Final thoughts

Thanks to Richard Byrne for co-hosting this session with me.  Special thanks to Kim Caise for all her hard work supporting ISTE Unplugged and to Paula Naugle for giving permission for us to use the photo.

Thanks again to those that submitted questions via our Google Form. Apologies but I’ve left one question on student blogging for another posts as I’d love to hear others thoughts on it.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

1. What did I miss in my responses?
2. Do you have any other questions on student blogging you would like answered?
3. Remember I will be doing a follow up post on the general blogging questions — so please leave a comment with any questions you would like answered.

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