To Blog, or Not to Blog

Edublog:  Edublogs is a combination of blogs to find and subscribe to and also a place to start your own blog.  It is a place that takes time to explore and from what I’ve seen just by looking without signing up, it seems like a nicely built community for educators.  Based out of Australia, the website opens up educators to blogs around the world.  There isn’t quite the variety of other countries that I would have liked, but enough to peak interest.  The Blog set up is rather reminiscent of the the MySpace set-up that lasted all of 2 years, but designing and organizing your blog is rather easy.  Again, without paying for anything you get the basic designs, basic features, and basic privacy policy.  It isn’t anything that I would lose sleep over, but looking over the additional items that come with a the monthly or annual fee makes me slightly jealous.  Free isn’t always the best option anymore. The tool also offers an intriguing challenge for students called student blogging challenge that I will definitely be discussing with my library person.

This tool can be used for both instructional strategy and communication purposes. Educators can utilize Edublogs to connect with other classrooms in other countries or stick closer to home within the States.  Beside learning from other students, students can post their thoughts and create their own blogs within a class blog.  It would be a nice way to track student work and monitor progress. In addition it can open the classroom to the community by allowing parents and relatives to view the work and comment on the ideas presented in the assignment.  For the teacher the blog could be used as a communication tool for updating parents on progress made in the classroom.  If major projects are being developed, or presentations are given, a class blog is the perfect place to display all the accomplishments families never get to witness.

This tool is all over the charts. The free version available to us frugal folk is pretty decent when it comes to User Friendliness.  There are tutorials galore and tech support game me an email right away when I signed up.  However, these tutorials and explorations take time (which I don’t have in the now) and patience (which very few middle school students have because they just aren’t developmentally there).  If it was to be introduced to a class, scaffolding, partnering, and failure would have to be expected.  It’s not easy to get used to working and developing your technology in the classroom; Edublogs falls into that realm.  Safety options are there, but not the best. Every time I went to alter a privacy setting, such as adding passwords or preview blog before posting option, it wasn’t allowed. I believe the extra privacy and safety would come with the extra compensation for services; not that I blame them.  There are plenty of opportunities for cross curricular application.  You make the blog suit your purposes and can visit others to allow for other content areas to collaborate with yours. It is also suitable for professional development by allowing a place for reflection and collaboration.  Perhaps if you’re not intimidated by so much exploration involved in the beginning, then this tool is worth investing in.

Communication Tool Rubric

	User Friendliness	Safety	Customization for Educators	Cross-Curricular Application	Cognitive Differentiation
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 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 would need modification in order to 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.
Additional notes