5 Steps to District Blogs

Miguel Guhlin

Mousing Around - http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

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Session Facilitators

• Kim Caise, Campus Instructional Technologist
• Paul Gates, Second Grade Teacher
• Jill Gernentz, Campus Instructional Technologist
• Miguel Guhlin, Director
• Sylvia Martinez, Technology Integration Coordinator
• Tina Morrow, Campus Instructional Technologist
• Christina Prado, Campus Instructional Technologist
• Gregory Rodriguez, Technology Integration Facilitator
• Larry Stegall, Technology Integration Facilitator

5 Steps to District Blogging

Test of Pulsate

1. Possess a Passionate Desire to Communicate.
2. Market the advantages of blogging.
3. Get others hooked on reading and commenting on blogs.
4. Establish clear guidelines.
5. Pick Your Blog Platform and implement it

Passionate Desire

Human nature doesn't change, but social and technological progress tends to amplify its effects. Simply put, the more ways we have to do what comes naturally, the more we do it. One of the things that comes most naturally to humans is the desire to communicate; the internet amplifies our ability to do so.

Research is showing people how to "incorporate the internet into their social 'toolkit' and use it...to deal with personal and interpersonal issues in their lives."

Read "Free internet as an Agent of Community Transformation"
from The Journal of Community Informatics

The Blog Advantage

• Easy for Non-Technical Persons
• Easy to Publish via the Web
• Text/Audio/Graphic Content is Easy to Manage
• Easy to Track Blog Entries Using RSS Feeds

Example of RSS Feeds

Avoid the Controversy

• Principals and technology directors ban access from school computers to MySpace.com....
• "Blogging isn't educational use of computers...watch out for Internet Predators"
  --Proctor High School, Rutland, Vermont
• Controlling the tools of publication gives you control over content.

New Technologies are Disruptive

• If students cannot express ideas compellingly with text, images, sound, animation, video, and any remixed combination of these, then that student is not literate.
• ...it is not just jobs at issue but the failure of imagination.

--David Warlick, 2Cents Blog

Clear Blogging Guidelines

• If at the District level, bring blogging efforts in-house.
• Blogging is fairly new to K-12, so encourage your version of blogging as publishing.
• Blogging is about conversation, and you can help focus that conversation about education topics.
• An Example

Blog Platform Selection

• Pick tools you are going to be comfortable supporting.
• Choose a blog platform that is easy for the end-user and protects their writing from tampering.
• Use free tools rather than pay a big company (e.g. ePals, SchoolCenter).
• Keep a blog documenting your efforts for others to follow. Every experience is subject for blogging.

Our Examples

• Paul Gates 2nd Grade Class at Madison ES
• Jill Gernentz' at Collins Garden
• Kim Caise at Maverick
• Tina Morrow at Pfeiffer
• The Ed-Tech Blog: An example of a "district" blog

Other Examples

• Bob Sprankle's Room 208 Podcasts
• Darren Kuropatwa's Pre-Calc Class
• Ms. Polak's Triple Blog Launch
• Room 613 Student Blogs
• David Warlick's Education Podcast Network and ClassBlogmeister.com
• Radio WillowWeb
• Room Twelve
• Cultivating Digital Literacy through Blogging and Podcasting

Blogs to Read

• David Warlick's 2cents
• Wes Fryer's SpeedofCreativity.org
• Tim Frederick's ELA Blog
• Darren K.'s A Difference Blog

Parting Thought

The skill of writing is to create a context
in which other people can think.

--Edwin Schlossberg