Why Blog?

The power of blogging stems from the ability of students and teachers to easily publish to the web.  As Frank Catalano states in his December 2005 article, "Why Blog", it is not the tool that is important in a blog but the content that is published.  So the question is "Why Blog?"  According to Catalano, "With a little imagination, it can be made to be, particularly as a way to strengthen the home-school connection. Many schools are using blogs to reach out to parents and the community with consistently updated information on school events and activities. In other instances, the traditional student "journaling" that is used to build writing skills is now being conducted online (and sometimes in public) via student blogs."  This, ultimately, only scratches the surface as the uses of blogging in schools is limited only to the imagination of the educator.

Examples of Blogs:

- Blogs used with elementary school students:Grade 2 students; Grade 8 Science class

- Blogs used with secondary school students: High School Students Studying Hamlet

- Blogs used by school administration:http://sjbrooks-young.com/blog/; http://mabryonline.org/blogs/tyson/; http://tim.lauer.name/    

(One more Rob - http://leadertalk.org/ - this is a multiuser blog published by many administrators)

Using Podcasts/Video Podcasts in Schools

There are a wide variety of possibilites for both teachers and students here.  For instructional purposes, teachers can have students subscribe "Great Speeches in History", a podcast from LearnOutLoud.com where students can listen to actual speeches from key historical figures - learning history using promary sources.  Teachers can have students subscribe listen to analysis of great works of art from the smART History podcast.  Students can create podcasts/video podcasts for culminating activities or other assignments and publish to the world through iTunes.

Examples of Educational Podcasts/Video Podcasts:

- Instructional podcasts/vodcasts: smART History Podcast; "Great Speeches in History" podcast from LearnOutLoud

- Student created podcats/vodcasts: Bishop Strachan School Podcast (check iTunes); Cleveland Bailey Elementary School

Connected with this is the educational uses of iTunes with the iPod.  This article by David Baugh provides many useful ideas on using the iTunes and the iPod with students:

Educational Uses of iTunes/iPod - article by David Baugh, 2005

Other Forms of Publishing:

Flickr 

- Publishing images for presentations

- Downloading Creative Commons images for student and teacher presentations

Scribed

- Publishing documents for presentions

- Handing in assignments

- Uploading documents for collaboration

RSS - Putting the Pieces together

          RSS Ideas for Educators

Other - http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/student-books-on-lulu/

References: 1) Frank Catalano. T.H.E. Journal. Tustin: Dec 2005.Vol.33, Iss. 5;  pg. 22, 6 pgs

                     2) Will Richardson's Blog at http://weblogg-ed.com/