Is anyone blogging

[Sandy]

I am just wondering if anyone has started a blog with their students? if so I would love to take a look at what is happening e.g. how it is been used etc. I am excited to see where some of you go with this.

[Spraggy]

3A have just started blogging. I have let my students have a go today. The has a startling lack of widgets or anything else on the page but they are still really excited. No curriculum connections just yet. I am planning on a comment a week from them as a minimum and moving on to a comment and a reply later in the year. Watch this space.

[Sandy]

Great news David. If I can be of help in terms of responding to what is on there as well let me know.

[Lauralynn Stefureak]

I am also blogging with my Grade 11's in the Senior School...or trying to! While they are enthusiastic about the idea, and their contributions have been great so far...the heavy course load of IB Higher Level English (and other subjects) has been getting in the way. Formal assessments are taking precedence over contributing. From their point of view, it is all about grades...and there is no "grade" for the Blog. Their frankness is giving me another perspective...and forcing me to "re-think" how the Blog can be used next year. I don't want to give up on it and neither do they, but we have to somehow increase the relevance in terms of grading at the senior level.

[Julie Lindsay]

The act of blogging needs to embedded into your curriculum. In MYP Technology for example it is assessable as primarily it becomes the process journal that records development of the product. I also use it right across the criteria for students to post their work for Investigate, Design, Plan and Evaluate rather than submitting printed pages. Other tools such as Inspiration allow them to create diagrams etc that can also be uploaded to the blog making it a multimedia presentation.
Using RSS readers (eg bloglines, iGoogle) I am able to keep track of students work and can find it at anytime online. Each of my students has their own personal blog. Next year every student in the senior school should have their own personal wiki on which they can store work and add reflections and develop a digital portfolio.

[Lauralynn Stefureak]

I thought I had embedded it in the curriculum...but neglected to consider the viewpoint of my students. If there isn't a grade attached to it, it is of a much lower priority. I am planning to meet with the English IB-Diploma teachers to discuss options for integrating blogging. Somehow I am determined to find the right path to making this work!
Are the senior students creating the wikis in IT? What about the IB-Diploma students who don't study IT?

[Julie Lindsay]

Good for you! Next year I will be able to help more as part of my role will be Technology Integration facilitator...so let's look together how we can embed and encourage. There has been some wiki creation in MYP Technology this year, and this will continue, however it needs to be the responsibility of all teachers, not just the IT teachers, to take this an move with it.