Sunday, December 16th, 2007...5:55 pm
Q & A – How Do You Use Blogs in Your Classes?
Yesterday I received an email from a teacher in St. Louis with several questions for me.
1. How do students log into the blog? Do they each have their own account or just one student account?
The great thing about blogs is unlike bulletin boards and wikis they can be used safely with students without requiring usernames and passwords. Students don’t have to log in to use it. However, I do have comment moderation turned on. That way when a student writes a comment to a post it doesn’t automatically appear on the blog until I’ve read and approved it. You can see my blog training website to find my safety information and a student safety contract. I held a blog training session for teachers at my school and built that website for the training. I just want to interject here that I am by no means an expert in blogging, but I do feel I can passionately speak out for the positive benefits of using blogs in the science classroom, hence the purpose of this blog.
2. Do you require students to blog for a grade?
Yes! They must earn 100 blog points per semester. The project is worth about 20% of their grade. Some might think that is initially a bit much, but if you start a blog with you’re students you’ll discover how much work it is for the students and why it is so beneficial. The blog developed out of my personal philosophy of science education – students should understand that science is a collaborative process, not a mere collection of facts. Students develop science literacy skills by using the blog to discuss science news, thus I find it greatly valuable to their education.
3. If yes, how often are students required to blog?
It’s a semester long project. I made it pretty flexible for the students. I gave 10 points per post and 2 points per comment. So they could either reach 100 points by writing 50 comments, 10 blog posts, or a mix of the two. Most students completed a mixture of the two. I had guidelines that the students had to follow in order to receive points for posts and comments.
I have 60 students so my point system required me to grade quite a few comments (over 2,500!), so next semester I’m going to give more points per post and comment. However, I’ll also have tougher restrictions on what makes an acceptable post or comment.
4. Do most students blog at school or at home?
At home. I gave them quite a few homework nights to just work on the blog. On those nights I didn’t keep track of who actually worked on it or not for any grading purposes. That way students could respond to blog posts when they enjoyed the post rather than just doing it for a grade.
5. How do students decide what to blog on?
This semester I left it pretty open. Anything dealing with biology was okay. Next semester, however, I plan on tightening the restrictions a bit now that they are comfortable with using the blog. I’ll be posting a list of some of changes for next semester over the Christmas break. The list will include what worked this semester and what didn’t work and why. I’ll also be posting my student blog training suggestions. It takes a bit of work to get students to learn how to effectively write posts and comment on posts, but it’s well worth the effort.
Was this information helpful? Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I’d love to hear more about you and students. If you decide to start a blog for your students, please send me the web address and sporadically drop by and let me know how it’s going!
14 Comments
December 18th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Hi Miss Baker.
I am a newly qualified chemistry teacher in a high school in Scotland. I have found your class blog really interesting and have used it with my classes a few times.
I just wanted to let you know that this post was really helpful. I would love to set up a class blog for my S1 class (approx 12 years old) but im not sure how well they would take to it. I think i’ll try to set it all up after the christmas break.
thanks.
Victoria Fraser
December 18th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Hi Victoria!
I’m really glad you found the information helpful. I think starting a blog for your students is an excellent idea. My students are a little bit older than yours, but I know some students in our middle school (11-14 year olds) who have heard about our blog and think it sounds very cool. If you want your students to practice using a blog they are quite welcome to come say hello on my student blog. My kids woulds would love it.
Happy Blogging!
Stacy
December 20th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Hi Miss Baker,
Thank you for this post – I have now set up my blog (with Blogger) and I am looking forward to using it with students in the new year. I will have Year 7 Science (12-13 yrs) and Year 11 and 12 Environmental Science classes in 2008. We have recently had a PD on how to embed video files, so I am hoping to set up an assessment task where students produce a short video about what they have learnt – safe use and identification of of scientific equipment, safety rules in the lab. and how to separate mixtures. Then post it on TeacherTube and link it to my blog.
Happy Christmas and Keep up the great work.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Brit,
I’d love to see those videos as soon as you have them. What a great idea! I’ve been trying to get my students to make short videos, but they are so camera shy. Let me know how it goes and if you can, give details about how you designed the assignment (grade earned, requirements, etc.) and how your students reacted!
Also, please send me your blog link when you get a chance!
Stacy
January 8th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Stacy, thanks for the reply. I have spoken to the pupils about starting our blog and they are all really keen, enthusiastic even. Wow! But i have never used edublogs and i still have a few technical questions. Things like how do your pupils log in to write posts and comments? Im a bit stumped! any help would really be appreciated.
Victoria
January 8th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Hi Victoria! I’m glad they’re so excited. Students don’t have to login to use the blog. Just make sure when you set up your blog that you turn “comment moderation” on. That means that a student’s comment will not appear on the blog until you’ve approved it. That’s important because you don’t want any student to post anything negative or have a strange visitor to your blog post something vulgar.
To turn comment moderation on you just login to your site admin area. Click on Options, then click Discussion. Make sure the box that says, “before a comment appears an administrator must always approve the comment” is checked. It isn’t the default setting so you’ll probably have to check it.
To moderate your comments you just login to site admin and click Manage. It’s pretty obvious from there out.
Edublogs is really easy to use. You just have to take some time and learn all the buttons. Of course, as educators we both know that we don’t have a lot of time. But, I promise it’s worth it!
Stacy
PS Make sure your students know not to put their last names when they write a comment.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Thanks again Stacy. You have been a really big help. I have one last question. Did you consult parents to let them know about your blog? I would like to keep parents informed about the blog and would love them to read and maybe even comment on their childs work but think i’ll have to run it past the headteacher first.
Thanks again. I will send you a link to our blog when its up and running. (hopefully very soon)
Victoria
January 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Definitely let the parents know about it. I strongly encourage you to write up a contract with your students that their parents must sign. Include in the contract the rules for the blog, especially safety rules. You can see mine here: http://stacycbaker.googlepages.com/blogwikicontract
January 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Hi Stacy,
I love both of your sites!
I’m starting my second semester as an adjunct in biology at FDU in New Jersey and I’m also pursuing my state certification for public school here. I started thinking how it would be great to do exactly what you’re doing with your class. I started with making a website just to post stuff but realized how great it would be to have them collaborate in the manner your students are.
Right now, my work is just at mrbirdbiology.googlepages.com, and I just established biologyblog.edublogs.org.
-Carl
January 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Hi Carl,
I’ve added your blog to my blogroll. I loved all the videos on your website. I’m so glad you shared it with me!
My students earn points for blogging so as soon as you start writing on your blog I’ll send them to comment on your site (if you’d like). I promise your students will get the greatest kick out of strangers writing to their blog posts, especially teenagers their own age. Send your students to come over and comment on our blog if we happen to be discussing something useful to your class.
Stacy
January 13th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I look forward to it all Stacy. My classes start up again on the 28th, so we have another two weeks before I might have any posts.
Right now, I am planning on using the blog for students to post items in the news as well as reflections to class and their own reading material.
What I like about your blog is the amount of original threads posted by students.
It looks like for simply replying, no login is needed, but to have students create new content, how is this set up differently?
Do I have to add them as administrators or something similar?
Also do you know if edublogs has a cap to how many users you can have? I originally wanted to sign up with the parent wordpress company, but it looks like they cap the number of users to 30 for the free service plan.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Carl – Technically Edublogs.org, so far as I’ve figured out, cannot accept student users. Their companion site Learnerblogs.org is where students get their blogs, but – this means that your class blog must also be on Learnerblogs.org.
It appears to me that Stacy is simply posting for the students off of her own account – notice that the author isn’t listed in the heading, but rather in the body of the post, as a by-line. Very clever!
Stacy, how did you get the “Favorite Posts” listed in the sidebar of the student blog? And which service are you using for the student blog?
January 15th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Rik is absolutely correct. I don’t set up usernames for my students. They send me their posts via email and I post them. I currently use Yahoo web hosting for the student blog, but I wouldn’t recommend it. They won’t update the wordpress software and so I’m using an ancient version of WP. I have too many problems that I have to work around.
I plan on switching hosts over the summer when I have more time, but haven’t decided on a new host. So unfortunately I don’t have a recommendation. I do recommend you get a webhost if you’re going to use the blog extensively in your class. You have a lot more freedom (e.g. editing privileges) with your own host. The downside is that it isn’t free and you’ll need to learn at least basic html to understand what you’re doing.
To get the favorite posts list I inserted a code into my sidebar. I can’t find the original source of the code, but this website has basically the same thing:
http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/07/24/wordpress-hack-most-popular-articles
You have to edit the code a little bit to fit your blog. Wherever the code says, “your site” you’ll need to chage it to your url. You’ll also need to upload the green-star.png.
If you aren’t using wordpress there are plugins available that you can download.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Hey Stacy
Thanks for adding me to your blogroll. I have actually discontinued the use of the wordpress account for now. For lack of funds right now, edublogs looked more appealing so I am currently using the URL biologyblog.edublogs.org and not biologyblog.wordpress.com.
Perhaps I’ll use the other address for another class in the future, but the edublogs account is the one with activity for now. I’ve recommended your site to my students as well.
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