Chapter 3 Summary

Andrew Thonstad
October 8, 2009
Richardson, Will (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Chapter 3: Weblogs: Get Started
Getting started early with Weblogs (blogging) should be a priority it we want to use them in the classroom. A smart idea would be to start small by reading blogs that are of interest to you. Hopefully you can find some that are well done. Your next step in becoming familiar with blogs is to start responding to the blogs you are reading. I can share how anxious I was with my first post to someone else’s blog. I reread my thoughts several times to make sure it said what I wanted it to say and that the spelling and grammar were correct. I believe that maintaining a blog will take dedication, as it is easy to skip over now and again.

I agree with Mr. Richardson in that we should model appropriate blogging techniques. There may be some students who have not blogged in the past, so having a model that they can follow is important. I have been thinking about using blogs when I start teaching, and living in a rural area, I wonder how many students have access to computers and the internet. The book makes reference to this fact (“80% of households have internet access at the end of 2004”). My idea would be to have a paper survey to determine the level of connectivity of my students. The results might have some bearing to the possible success of blogging in my classroom. Mr. Richardson lays out the important steps to blogging with the students:
1. Get the students reading blogs.
2. Let the students respond to the post on your class blog.
3. Consider giving each student his/her own blog.

As discussed in the first chapter, make sure that you have the correct permissions before staring the class blogs. Student safety is important; educators should consider ways to limit the students using personal identifiers about themselves or others when they publish. Educators should have a plan in place that clarifies the uses and purposes of the blogs. Before starting this project, you should set the guidelines as to the expectations for the blogs and how you are going to grade them. As always, the more documentation you have in place in the beginning, the easier it will be to hold all the students to the same level.

I agree with Mr. Richardson in that using a freestanding (and free) service would be easiest. While there are a number of blogging programs and sites available (Edublogs.org & 21Classes.com are the two he listed), Blogger seems to have the capabilities that are needed. During these budget-constrained times it would be hard to get the school district to purchase and support a program that can be found for free. Having lived in the corporate world for too long, I know that trying to get most IT professionals to support an outside program can be extremely difficult. I do like the capability of blogger.com to control the members of the blog.

While Mr. Richardson does reiterate previous information, he does add some new ideas and techniques to this chapter.