Kathleen Morris' Teacher Tech was the blog assigned to me for the semester. She is currently on maternity leave for the year, so some of the posts I replied to are a few months old, but still had relevant information which I found useful.
Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum
Ms. Morris wrote a post about how blogging can help to increase literacy in the classroom, and how blogging can help students become transliterate, so they can interact across several interfaces of media both digitally and traditionally. She shared very valid points for not only using blogging as an "add on" to the classroom, but making it a rigorous part of the curriculum and to stay committed as a teacher to incorporating blogging as a daily or at least weekly part of their routines. This is my response to her post.
Your tips on using blogs as a way to integrate literacy into the classroom are important for all educators to not only review, but put into pratice, primarily because of one of the points you raise in this post.
“The concept of literacy education has changed as technology has evolved. It is no longer enough to teach students how to read books and write on paper. ”
I agree with your statements about students needing to be taught 21st century skills, and traditional pedagogy will not meet the needs of today’s learners, nor will they keep them interested. Blogging is an excellent tool for both technology and literacy integration as well as a student motivator. The fact you have been blogging for six years with your students is amazing, and you are definitely an inspiration to other teachers who are looking to incorporate blogging into the curriculum.
Instructions for Using Creative Commons Images in Blog Posts
Kathleen has created an amazing infographic and step-by-step guide on how to properly upload and attribute images in a blog post, where to find Creative Commons images, how to use FlikrCC, and Wikimedia Commons in a downloadable file which can be shared with teachers and students. You can find the PDF file by clicking here. This is an invaluable tool I feel should be reviewed with students at least two or three times a year. This is my response to her post.
I appreciate this very useful resource for showing students how to properly upload and attribute images in blog posts. Many students as well as adults are simply not aware of the potential consequences copyright infringement, and your step-by-step guide will definitely be added to my dossier of items I will share with students and teachers as a media specialist. Thank you for sharing.
There’s Blogging and There’s Blogging…
In this post, Kathleen compares blogging where students blog in an unstructured vs. a structured style. Ms. Morris relates her experiences having a classroom blog since 2008, and points out the benefits of having blogs which begin as a class blog, then branch out to student blogs, have an established set of high standards for writing, netiquette, and design, plus consistent, quality feedback and parental involvement. I love the graphic she included in this post.
This is what I wrote to her:
I am glad you are able to admit it took time and a teacher centered effort to make your classroom blogs effective tools for helping to create quality writers. I am a media specialist in an elementary school in Alabama, and as of now, there are no teachers using classroom blogs. Because I have just learned about blogging at the beginning of this year, and have been following your blog as part of a course assignment, I have been inspired to start a library blog about books. I am hoping to host a professional development showing teachers how to set up a classroom blog for their students using your resource tools as a starter. I appreciate the documents you have prepared and posted for sharing as I have downloaded several of them. I hope to be able to someday inspire others as you have me, and I thank you for what you've been able to accomplish.
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