Thing 3

How might you use a blog with students? How might they respond to a blog assignment? What concerns about blogging with students do you have? How might you use a blog for other educational purposes (other than with students)?

I can see that there are many, many ways that a blog can be used with students. One way that I am currently using a blog is for the daily announcements. Each day the staff of my building email their announcements to me. I compile the announcements and they are posted on podbean. My students then record the announcements and we post the MP3 file as well. Currently I do not let the students post to the blog.

I think my students would LOVE to have a blog assignment. Unfortunately I am hitting a roadblock with the logistics of it. A lot of blog sites are blocked in my school district. If I want the students to set up their own blogs then they will need an email address. Most students have email addresses but some do not. I wanted to give my students gmail student accounts but right now the administration is a bit weary of that approach. So right now I am just waiting.

I have many concerns about students and blogging. The biggest concern though is drama related to putting publication rights into the hand of Middle School students. I am afraid of them posting negative comments on each other's blogs or having flaming wars, etc....

A neat blog to have that would be for teachers (but not students) would be a place to link great teacher created lessons for Media Literacy. This is my first year teaching the subject and I feel like I am floundering. If there was someone out there compiling resources on the topic I would LOVE it.