blogs_chat

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10:15 justinreeve : looks like they're talking about student blogging 10:16 justinreeve : shameless plug: http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us/jreeve/why-teachers-should-encourage-students-to-blog/ 10:16 mrsdurff : what was your first guess? 10:16 justinreeve : add to the VoiceThread, too, if you want 10:16 cnelson-2 : Since I have finally muted, someone let me know if audio revives itself. 10:16 mrsdurff : well i have coffee to get - ciao 10:16 justinreeve : why is it every time I try to make a VoiceThread, I sound goofy? 10:16 justinreeve : I'm not cut out to be a public speaker, that's for sure 10:18 loonyhiker : @justinreeve great post. i left a comment 10:18 justinreeve : thanks! 10:18 lnitsche : Yea- I'm Baaack! 10:18 justinreeve : I really want to try pushing student blogs on teachers this year 10:19 lnitsche : Try refreshing to see if the audio comes back 10:19 justinreeve : It seems our district doesn't yet have a general policy about teacher-student social networking/blogging/commenting/etc. This might be a good thing, because it means there's room to influence the decision-makers before they just make a blanket decision "no social networks/blogs/anything" 10:19 loonyhiker : no, refreshing didn't work for me 10:20 loonyhiker : i reloaded the video and then refreshed the whole page 10:20 lnitsche : ok, cheking connections 10:21 lnitsche : we are Skyping in Zach Chase from SLA in Phila to talk about his blogs 10:22 lnitsche : Can you hear now? 10:22 fsinfo : yeah 10:22 loonyhiker : much better!!! 10:23 lnitsche : cool! 10:23 lnitsche : can you hear zach? 10:23 somotch8-2 : Yeah audio is back! 10:24 cnelson-2 : Thank you LInda 10:24 loonyhiker : yes i can hear him 10:24 cnelson-2 : where is Zack--at his home? 10:24 lnitsche : It looks that way! 10:25 jabernethy-1 : hey guys...sound is back!!! 10:25 justinreeve : For those who have student blogs in your school or district, do you use an outside service, or do you insource the blogs? 10:25 jabernethy-1 : insource?? 10:25 somotch8-2 : I use an outside source called Think.com 10:26 justinreeve : I didn't realize Think.com provided student blogs 10:26 somotch8-2 : we are globally connected as well 10:26 somotch8-2 : our tcis set them up for the entire school along with teacher blogs 10:27 lnitsche : @somotch8-2 So how active are your teachers and students in blogging? 10:27 somotch8-2 : we just finished our first year. 4th grade was active and first grade just started 10:28 somotch8-2 : my students are still active at the moment and still blog 10:28 somotch8-2 : teachers took a little longer to get started 10:28 lnitsche : Are the teachers blogging for their classes, parents, outside world? 10:29 justinreeve : most of our teachers are just blogging as a place to dump assignments 10:29 justinreeve : it's a good start, but they could be doing more 10:29 somotch8-2 : just for their class and parents 10:29 lnitsche : Have the parents become involved in replying and commenting? 10:29 justinreeve : Yes! Not too frequently, but they do. 10:29 somotch8-2 : my students post their ppts projects for me to view 10:30 justinreeve : Generally, the more active the teacher blogs, the more active the parents are. 10:30 cnelson-2 : @justinreeave think of that as the beginner level. Next will be the "showcasing of assignments." 10:30 justinreeve : *more actively 10:30 justinreeve : we have some teachers who do showcase quite a bit 10:30 cnelson-2 : I have a tecaher doing his that way http://mrgranito.edublogs.org 10:30 justinreeve : then the 3rd stage will be connecting on a global level and collaborating 10:31 lnitsche : @justinreeve Has your school set up policies to manage that? 10:31 justinreeve : @lnitsche Not specifically. Our district's Appropriate Use Policy might cover some of it, but not really. 10:32 justinreeve : This is why it's a good time to try to influence how future decisions are made regarding collaborative opportunities on the web 10:32 lnitsche : Or is it a scaffolding process that guides the students in learning how to respond effectively and appropriately 10:33 justinreeve : that's what we SHOULD be doing. 10:33 justinreeve : Sometimes rather than teach kids how to responsibly use the tools, we just ban them because we think it's "easier" 10:33 justinreeve : or we perceive that parents will be "against it" without even bothering to connect with them 10:34 lnitsche : Communication with all of the stakeholders is essential 10:34 justinreeve : on the other side, though, I understand why schools do it. The last thing we want is a big fat lawsuit because we didn't block some tool we "should have blocked" according to a group of parents 10:34 lnitsche : That's why it is important to engage the parents in commenting on your blogs too 10:34 justinreeve : Yes, it is. 10:35 justinreeve : Parents need to take a much more active role in their children's schools' technology 10:35 justinreeve : And schools are the ones who need to be encouraging this. Could start in PTA meetings. 10:35 justinreeve : Perhaps even an entirely separate consortium of administrators-teachers-parents. 10:35 lnitsche : We need to find ways to invite them into using the technology- they are not familiar with it 10:36 justinreeve : No, they're not 10:36 somotch8-2 : when we began think.com parents had to read and sign permission slips 10:36 justinreeve : A new school in the area is doing away with textbooks. I mentioned it to my parents, and they were flabbergasted and instantly against the idea of not having textbooks in a classroom. 10:37 justinreeve : Even though they themselves know the power of audiobooks because they listen to them all the time, and they use the Internet frequently, they just didn't connect the dots. 10:37 lnitsche : They only know what they have experienced in school 10:37 justinreeve : If the parents, who are naturally fearful of progressive technology, are not aware of the advantages they WILL resist it. 10:38 lnitsche : The question of grading- is there a rubric? 10:38 lnitsche : What do all of you do with your student blogs? 10:38 jabernethy-1 : I've found that way more parents are wowed and on-board with the tech than those against 10:38 justinreeve : Right. And that's okay, because it worked for them. But really THEY'RE the stakeholders we're supposedly looking out for, since they're the ones who have the complaining power. 10:38 justinreeve : Oh, sure they are. When given the chance, most of them will love the idea of having tech-savvy students. 10:39 jabernethy-1 : in 10 years of having a website and progressively going more tech, I have only had 2 parents complain 10:39 justinreeve : But the parents need to be given learning opportunities so they can first be enlightened. That's the first step. 10:39 jabernethy-1 : one parent moved his kid from my class, because he didn't understand why i would need internet to teach about 50 states 10:40 justinreeve : Perhaps rather than just having parents sign permission slips to let students blogs, the teachers should invite all parents to class one day and just demonstrate the cool stuff they'll be doing 10:40 jabernethy-1 : the parent actually had something to hide (his kid)--complicated 10:40 justinreeve : That's unfortunate. 10:40 somotch8-2 : not every there are always a few students that don't have access at home and that is a problem for no texts at all 10:40 jabernethy-1 : i send bookmark of website home with kids day one and permission slip 10:40 justinreeve : depends on what pedagogy you're using 10:41 lnitsche : Does anyone have any questions to ask Zach? 10:41 justinreeve : this particular school is an expeditionary learning school, so all their classwork is hands-on 10:41 jabernethy-1 : Just tell him jabernethy says hi! 10:41 jabernethy-1 : very cool! 10:41 justinreeve : haha you're famous! 10:41 justinreeve : comments can be moderated 10:42 loonyhiker : i don't moderate comments on my teacher blog and only had 1 spamming comment in almost a year 10:42 justinreeve : teachers should be able to moderate all student blogs 10:42 somotch8-2 : our tcis checks the blog and can flag content and have the student remove 10:42 loonyhiker : that's a good idea @justinreeve 10:42 justinreeve : this is why I wouldn't recommend sending students to a site like Blogger or WordPress or Typepad 10:42 justinreeve : use Edublogs, 21Classes, or Think.com :) 10:42 somotch8-2 : right 10:43 justinreeve : I like the idea of outsourcing the service, because it alleviates some responsibility from the district. 10:43 justinreeve : if you host your own student blogging service, suddenly the district becomes responsible for the content. 10:44 somotch8-2 : thanks Zack! 10:44 justinreeve : But if a teacher picks a site, the district can say they don't officially endorse it, and the teacher becomes responsible 10:44 lnitsche : www.freedomwritersfoundation.org 10:48 lnitsche : What fun. Thanks for joining us Jan. 10:48 somotch8-2 : that was a great community collab idea 10:48 lnitsche : And it right in the backyard of the school! 10:49 jabernethy : whole new mind is AWESOME on audio 10:49 cnelson-2 : I was involved with that!! 10:49 cnelson-2 : so cool 10:49 somotch8-2 : I will check that out 10:50 somotch8-2 : Did you know? is what got my school excited 10:50 jabernethy : link to Project S.C.A.T. http://cyberchickens26.blogspot.com/ 10:51 justinreeve : Bud is awesome 10:51 justinreeve : Here's his web site: http://www.budtheteacher.com 10:52 lnitsche : What do you include in your student blogging guidelines? 10:53 loonyhiker : hate to run but i gotta get some lunch now. thanks for streaming this! 10:53 justinreeve : where is this web site again? 10:53 lnitsche : http://kti2008.wikispaces.com/Blogs_4_Reflection 10:54 jgates513 : hello to all! wish I could be there! 10:55 lnitsche : Hello Jim! 10:55 jgates513 : hi LInda 10:55 lnitsche : You are here...virtually 10:55 jgates513 : but I have to run now - STEM preso this afternoon 10:55 lnitsche : Have fun! 10:55 jgates513 : thanks - you too 11:00 khokanson-1 : hey all thanks for hanging in there 11:00 somotch8-2 : thanks for sharing this has been great so far :) 11:04 somotch8-2 : netiquette links for online blogging were helpful for my students 11:04 jabernethy : Thanks, Kristin! Please give a shout out to Kelly Mott from Greenville. She's in the room right now. 11:06 lnitsche : @somotch8-2 Can you include the links you used? 11:06 somotch8-2 : I will get them now 11:06 lnitsche : Thanks! 11:10 justinreeve : gotta run to a school. Thanks everyone! 11:10 somotch8-2 : http://www.albion.com/netiquette/ this is one of them 11:11 jabernethy : link to a blog with projects my kids did for cyber bullying: http://stopcyberbully.blogspot.com/ 11:12 lnitsche : Thanks everyone for the links. 11:14 somotch8-2 : also http://www.bewabeware.ca/english/default.aspx 11:15 lnitsche : The last link is not working for me. Can you check it? 11:15 cnelson-2 : Durff uses Class Blogmeister. 11:16 cnelson-2 : Edublogs now offers teachers student space for class blogs too 11:16 jconger : cool because my district only likes Edublogs 11:16 cnelson-2 : I havent used it though 11:16 somotch8-2 : sorry link error- should be http://www.bewebeware.ca/english/default.aspx 11:18 jabernethy : still doesn't work 11:19 lnitsche : Any last questions out there? 11:19 somotch8-2 : sorry http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/default.aspx 11:20 somotch8-2 : hopefully that works 11:20 lnitsche : Yes it does. Thank you very much. 11:20 somotch8-2 : Yeah! that site is much better 11:20 jconger : Yes... the link works. What is the link for the wikispace for the conference? 11:22 lnitsche : Thank you everyone for joining us! 11:22 somotch8-2 : great 11:22 jabernethy : tell them sure for a fee 11:23 jconger : Keep twittering the links for the sessions!