What Would You Say About Blogging?

Image of WorldJolene Anzalone has been asked to give a 20 minute overview on blogging to 100 Principals and School Technology Strategists. She sent me a tweet to ask if I had any tips or advice.

Since many of us face similar situations I thought it would be better if we all provided our advice. Better still we could use this post to demonstrates how blogs connect us to a global audience where we can engage in conversations that lead to more ideas and greater innovation than each of us working individually.

Can you please help out by telling us:

  1. What are the main aspects of blogging that you would emphasize/highlight in a 20 minute overview of blogging?
  2. What examples of blogging would you show and why?
  3. What other tips or advice would you give?
  4. What country are you from?

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31 thoughts on “What Would You Say About Blogging?

  1. What are the main aspects of blogging that you would emphasize/highlight in a 20 minute overview of blogging?
    -use the CommonCraft video on blogging – http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs – simple and to the point about what blogs are
    – show them how blogs are for posting as well as responding to information
    -show them how blogs can respond quickly to current topics as it is so easy to post and comment to blogs

    What examples of blogging would you show and why?
    Show them examples of quality blogs such as the ones that have won the Edublog Awards – include student, teacher, administrator and well-known blogs so they can see what the blogs can do and how blogs can be used for many different purposes and audiences

    What other tips or advice would you give?
    -help them to understand that blogs are easy to do
    -blogs can be setup in many ways to provide various levels of access and safety for students
    -if possible, have a blog that they can read and post comments to so they get the feel of responding to blogs
    -show them how a reader, e.g. Google Reader, can be setup and used to make reading of blogs very efficient

    What country are you from? United States

  2. @cyd45 The links for credits is for people who want to become Edublogs supporters. You can read more about being a supporter here.

    @Nancy Wow great to hear how long your blog is going and how well it is doing. Excellent work.

    @John Borst Thanks for your thoughts. I have been thinking that it would be good to have a list of Principal and chief Adminstrators who blog for exactly that reason. Similar to what I’ve done for the class blogs.

    Any thought anyone?

    @Pina Looks like you have your avatar working fine.

    @tlpsart Hi Yyonne – glad to hear how much you are enjoying blogging with your students. Checked out your blog and love how you are using photos to share what is happening in class. Totally agree – in many ways reading blogs is more important than just writing your own blog posts.

    @Webhosting thanks for your comments

  3. What are the main aspects of blogging that you would emphasize/highlight in a 20 minute overview of blogging?
    –Userful articles that attract me.

    What examples of blogging would you show and why?
    –Fashion and beautiful styles.

    What other tips or advice would you give?
    –Your blog can be more beautiful.

    What country are you from?
    –AU

  4. I’m Yvonne Osborn, a Primary Visual Arts specialist teacher from Melbourne, Australia, and I’m relatively new to blogging. My site is http://www.tlpsart.edublogs.org. I can honestly say that blogging has refreshed my whole attitude to teaching and opened my eyes to what’s out there in regards to communicating about teaching and learning.
    I have wanted to showcase our students’ artwork for quite some time and then along came blogging and it allowed me to do that. Our site is of a different variety (perhaps more for information and less for opinion) and it is taking a while to get the comments I had thought would be forthcoming but I enjoy making it and love using it as a teaching tool. Our students almost burst with pride when they see their work online. I can foresee endless learning opportunities for my classes and those will multiply when I eventually get an interactive whiteboard in our Art room.
    I agree with Mike Curtain when he says “I think any conversation about blogging has to start with a direct attack on the popular perception of blogging as an act of vanity: Blogging is not about pedants on soapboxes but about conversations. It’s as much about reading blogs as it is about writing one. You really can’t get the full effect without doing both.” I am enjoying reading Mike’s blog “Connecting the Dots” and another by Rodd Lucier called “The Clever Sheep”.
    I blog humbly but with pride, pride in the way I relate to my students, in their great work and in the way that at 55 years old I am finding the use of the new communication and learning technologies exciting.
    Thanks Edublogs. You are a dream come true.

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