Author Archives: Sue Waters

About Sue Waters

Edublogs Support Manager @suewaters on Twitter

State of Educational Use of Blogs 2012 Survey

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We’re often asked for detailed information on how educators are using blogs.

So we’ve decided the best way to pull together a comprehensive resource is to survey educators. We’re looking for replies no matter what blogging platform you may be using.

And here’s how you can help:

  1. Can you complete our survey?
  2. Can you share a link to our survey with your network?  The more responses we receive, the better the data we can deliver!
  3. Share links to any recent articles you’ve written on this topic by leaving a comment so we can include when we present the survey results.

Thanks for helping out and we’ll be sharing the data we collect in a follow up post.

Help Answer Student’s Questions on Blogging in Education

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I'm BLOGGING this! - MOO Sticker DesignWe’ve been asked for a little help by a student who is researching the history of blogging and how it is being used in education.

She has asked some great questions that we know others would like answered as well.

So we’ve decided:

  1. We would love to hear YOUR answers to some of her questions
  2. We will write a follow up post that pulls together all your responses with the more specific questions we will need to answer

Can you help us?

Please share your thoughts on any or all of the following questions:  

  1. How long have you been blogging with your students?
  2. How has the educational experience for your students been transformed since you’ve been blogging with them?
  3. Do you believe that blogs have benefited the education system?
  4. Do you believe that blogs will become a common way of educating people in the future?
  5. Why has the way of teaching through technology grown dramatically?

Just leave a comment below with your thoughts or anything else you would like to say about blogging with your students!

Feel free to also answer with a blog post of your own (just leave a link in the comments) or send a tweet to @edublogs.

Thanks!

Image: I’m BLOGGING this! by salendron.

Interview with Jeff Meade from the Smithsonian’s EdLab

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We’re always interested in programs that are designed to help teachers incorporate new technologies and 21st century skills into classroom teaching.

So when I heard about Smithsonian’s EdLab I contacted Jeff Meade, their Mobile Learning Program Lead, and asked him to tell us how they are helping educators.

Check out what he has to say:

Can you tell us what is EdLab?

The EdLab is a place for educators to explore and establish new media practices for their classrooms. We provide workshops that put teacher in the creative role, solving missions, working in teams, and exploring digital and analog (non-digital) tools. We emphasize learning from failure, using the right tool for the job, building 21st century skills, and empowering teachers and students to make a difference in the world.

EdLab hosts weekend workshops during the school year and week-long workshops during the summer. Workshops leverage digital media to increase connections between Smithsonian museums, collections and experts to focus on authentic learning.

Signing up is easy- you can join us for free on the Postal Museum’s website.

What about educators who can’t attend your EdLab Workshops? How can they get involved?

We’ve started a new Living Archive of resources and teacher-inspired connections. Connections are mission-based learning plans embracing authentic learning experiences, peer feedback, product creation and sharing opportunities.

Teachers can check out ideas for activities they can do with their students or get in and share their ideas with us. A good way to get started is on the EdLab facebook page where we discuss current education issues and share what educators are doing in the classroom. We also showcase work being done by teachers on our blog.

Why was EdLab program started?

The why behind EdLab is the fun part.

Teachers are looking for new ways to connect with their students. EdLab enables us to help educators achieve their goals while helping them make sense of how museum resources can be used with students.

EdLab’s emphasis on digital media skills is not the only reason teachers come- teachers say they’re fed up with with students being disengaged from curriculum content and, well, the kids are bored. Bored students do not make teaching any fun.

What is the role of the Smithsonian?

We challenge teachers in EdLab workshops to make sense of the Smithsonian by connecting museums, collections or experts to real life and current events. The Smithsonian has vast resources that include millions of objects, nineteen museums, a national zoo, expert curators, international research facilities and partnerships with museums and education groups around the globe. The question is, how do we use these museum resources to enrich the content taught in classrooms, promote research and critical thinking skills and give students ownership over the largest museum institution in the world?

Museums and classrooms both face the same difficulty in making content about the here and now. Ideas don’t just live in a textbook or under an exhibit vitrine. They come alive when learners can not only increase knowledge, but do something with it.

That makes me think of the Smithsonian’s mission: to increase and diffuse knowledge. The increase part isn’t so tough, but the diffusion implies action.

Does the content connections need to take place only at the Smithsonian?

No! In fact, I’ll give you an example:

I was chatting on Facebook this weekend with a teacher friend in South Africa. She’s curious to hear ideas on teaching ancient civilizations to her 5th graders. Ancient civilization is one of those topics that you either just love (like me- I have a B.A. in Ancient History and religious studies) or just really don’t.

The problem is that we teach Ancient history like it’s in the past- Mesopotamia “happened,” then Ancient Egypt “happened,” then Greece and then Rome. So on and so forth.

I asked her if any of the key themes she teaches about ancient history are still relevant and unsolved today. Themes like social organization, economic systems, city planning and community design, religious influence, art and culture exploration/demonstrations…Funny thing is that we still haven’t figured these themes out yet, so perhaps we should ask the 5th grade what their solutions might be! Better yet, let’s give the 5th grade a chance to research their questions, reach conclusions, document their understanding, then share those ideas with others actively trying to solve the world’s problems.

Challenging 5th graders in this way and giving them an opportunity to share what they’ve learned with real people doing real work means that students are active community participants and even global citizens. Seriously, in the 5th grade- in Ancient civilization class!

And where do museums come into the picture?

Museums are great places to find a grounded bit of research. In a sea of information, its really nice to have a raft to cling to! Museums and cultural institutions are all over the world and half the time they’ve fallen into distant memory as random statues, historic houses, etc. Try taking a look around your community and see how many places like this really exist.

Washington DC is filled with monuments to people most folks today have never even heard of!! And these are supposed to be national American heroes! I’m not trying to discourage anyone from coming to the Smithsonian, I’m just saying that you have more resources available than you might realize right where you live.

What are the benefits in participating in EdLab programs?

For starters, our teacher participants come away inspired and feel that the content they are responsible for is exciting.

Seriously, science is not just something you study, it’s something you do. Science is action-oriented and becomes a civic responsibility that even the first graders counting worms on the playground can participate in. Students, on the other hand, feel like school is fun and actually has a purpose! Who would of thought?

Just as a reminder, how can educators get involved?

  1. We welcome any educator who is able to attend our workshops to attend! Summer is a great time to travel, and we’d be happy to have any educator in our workshops.
  2. You can also get involved by exploring your local museums and cultural sites. Real connections can be found there, and it’s even better when you challenge your students to find those connections. Make them get out of the classroom and explore their local community.
  3. Also, document the connections you find between your classroom content and real world learning. There is simply no reason we have to teach alone anymore, so share all of these ideas.
  4. Check out our showcase of work being done by teachers on our blog
  5. We’ve started a new Living Archive of resources and teacher-inspired connections, so get in there and share your ideas with us.
  6. Thanks Jeff for telling us about Smithsonian’s EdLab

The Class Blog List has been updated! Is your class blog on the list?

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Once yearly we go through the entire Edublogger’s class blog list to ensure the list remains current, contains helpful resources and see what else we can do to help you to find class blogs for the grades and subjects you teach.

We’ve just completed the 2012 update!  We hope you find the list helps.

You can view the list by:

  1. Going to our Check out our class blog list page.
  2. Downloading our Edublogger’s class blog list PDF — handy if you want to print copies to share with others!
  3. Scrolling to the bottom of this post to view our embedded Google Spreadsheet of the Edublogger’s class blog list.

Please let us know if you would like your class blog added to the list.  We add new blogs onto the list throughout the year and would love to add yours.

About The Edublogger’s Class Blog list

The Edublogger’s class blog list was originally created in 2008 for educators to use as a resource to:

  • Get ideas on how class blogs are used with students.
  • Check out ideas they can use with their students and on their own class blog.
  • Make connections with classes in other countries.

Now 3 years since the list was first created:

  • It’s still growing — the list is updated monthly to add new class blogs to the list.
  • It’s the most visited page on this blog

The list is created by teachers who submit their class blogs to be added to it by leaving a comment on these posts.

Keeping the list current

To ensure that the class blog list remains current and contain helpful resources we go through the entire list once a year to remove any blogs that:

  1. Have been deleted
  2. No longer exist
  3. Are no longer active (haven’t updated recently)
  4. Have changed their privacy from public to private.

Improving the list

During the yearly update we also look at how we can improve the list.   This year we have made the following changes:

  • We’ve changed to an embedded Google spreadsheet because it makes it easier to quickly update the list.
  • We’re broken the class blog list into Grades; Subject Areas such as Maths, Science, English, History, LOTE, EFL /ESL; type of blog such as Library, School news.

Blogging Since

We’re also aware that with some many blogs on the list that educators needed a way to quickly scan the list while learning more about the age of specific blogs.

The solution was the Blogging Since information.  For example, 2004 means the blog has been used for class blogging since 2004 whereas 2009 means a blog with has been used as a class blog since 2009. A class blog with ‘Since’ and the date indicates the teacher has been blogging for awhile but is now using a different class blog URL.

I continue to be amazed with how long some of these blogs have been used for class blogging!

Is your Class Blog on the List?

If you want to add your class blog to this list (or update your class blog details) leave a comment on this post to share with us:

  1. Your Class Blog title(s) and URL(s).
  2. Grade level(s) of your student
  3. If applicable. what subject areas or class blog category?  Refer to the category list on Our check out Class blogs page.
  4. Country
  5. Age of class blog.  Blogging since?
  6. Feel free to add other information as educators refer to comments to create connections with other class blogs!

Please check the Check out Class Blogs list first before providing updated information.

And here’s the complete Edublogger’s Class Blog list:

Just click on their blog title to visit the class blog!

Essential Tips to Help Parents and Students Connect with your Class Website

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Stupid computer

Lately we’re getting more emails from parents and students asking us to help them find the class blog or explain how to do things like add comments.

After spending the past few days trying to find my own son’s class website I’m really feeling their frustration.  You’ve more chance of finding a needle in a haystack than a website if the web address is wrong and the site is set up to block search engines.

A class website can really help students with their learning and it doesn’t need to send your parents and students crazy trying to work out how to find it or use it.

Here’s our two simple tips to help reduce their frustrations:

1.  Create a Parent Handout

The best way of making sure both parents and your students know how to find and use your website is to explain it using a handout.

Check out Kathleen Morris’s 10 Steps to Navigating the 2KM and 2KJ Blog.  It’ll help you work out the type of information needed for a parent handout.

Make sure when you include your website address that you double check it is correct by clicking on the link :)  You would be amazed at the number of URLs we’re sent each day that are completely wrong or missing a letter.

Tips:

  • We’ll often see teachers include www. in their website address.
  • Websites like blogs and wikis generally don’t include www in their web address; adding it to your URL means the website takes longer to load because it needs to redirect to the correct URL.
  • I use SnagIT to create quick screen captures with arrows, text and effects.  You can download a 30 free trial here!

2.  Gradually Introduce your website to your students

Never assume your students will know how to use your website.

Our experience is students generally don’t know what’s expected of them and too often teachers assume too much.

The same principles apply regardless if you are working with younger students, teenagers or adults and the type of website you are using — the more you guide them through the process of what’s involved the more they’ll get out of it.

Check out Kathleen Morris’s information under 4.  Introduce your blog to students – it’s a great example how to gradually introduce and build on their skills.

What do you think?

How else do you help your parents and students?  What other advice would you give teachers?

Let us know in the comments below and we will be sure to add it to the post!

Image of Stupid computer by f1uffster (Jeanie) licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.