Communication Tool #4: Blogger

Blogger is a blog-creation tool. Anybody with a Google account can easily get a blog set up and running. The blog posts can contain a wide variety of multimedia content and links to anywhere on the internet. Blog posts also contain a comments section where students or teachers can have back and forth conversations about the content in the blog post. Blogs can be followed by students or an outside audience. Blogs can also be set up to have students as blog post authors to expand audience.

	User Friendliness (Julie)	Safety (Lauren)	Customization for Educators (Brandon)	Cross-Curricular Application (Brandon)	Cognitive Differentiation (Julie)
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across multiple subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and does not support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.

Blogger gets a 3 for User Friendliness. It is not especially useful for struggling students since blog posts are still primarily composed through traditional writing methods. 

Blogger gets a 3 for Safety. Blogs can be locked down so that only the users of the blog can view the blog posts and the comments, or the blog can be opened up to the internet for anybody to view the posts and make comments.

Blogger gets a 4 for Customization. Blogs can be set up for any purpose, including a place for educators to share ideas and PD together. 

Blogger gets a 3 for Cross-Curricular. Blogs can be set up to do tasks with multiple subjects, but it is not inherently more helpful on this front than many other tools.

Blogger gets a 3 for Cognitive Differentiation. Blogs can be set up for many different purposes, but must be expressly set up that way and is not especially more conducive towards this than other tools.