Please Share Your Examples of How Educational Blogs Are Used

I’ve been doing webinars lately on educational blogging and want to create a showcase of the different ways educators and librarians are using blogs.

I’m hoping you can help!

I want to build on the concept of our Class blog list to include examples of:

  1. Class websites
  2. Book Review Blogs
  3. Library Blogs
  4. Principal blogs
  5. Professional Development blogs
  6. School News Blogs
  7. School websites
  8. Other (any type of educational blog I’ve missed and you feel should be included in the showcase)

Please leave a comment on this post with links to any blogs that we should include in the showcase.

We’ll need the following information:

  1. Blog Title(s) and Blog URL(s)
  2. Type of blog (class website, book review blog,  library blog etc)
  3. Any other important information about the blog(s) to help others understand how the blog(s) is used.

You can check out archives and information from my latest webinars here:

  1. The Care and Feeding of your blog – for TL Virtual Cafe
  2. Introduction to Blogging – Jan 17 incl. Sue Wyatt, Peggy George (see supporting materials here) for ETMOOC
  3. Introduction to Blogging (Director Cut) – repeat Jan 23 incl. Sue Wyatt, Alan Levine, Penny Bentley (see supporting materials here)
  4. Advanced Blogging – incl. Alec Couros, Sue Wyatt, Penny Bentley (see supporting material here)
  5. Getting more out of student blogging – see supporting material here

37 thoughts on “Please Share Your Examples of How Educational Blogs Are Used

  1. Hi, I hope this is of use!
    I set up class blogs for all classes from Foundation to Y6 approx 12 months ago and they have grown at different rates. This is one of the Y6 URLs: http://kidblog.org/MissTaylorsClass5/
    and all of the other classes (12 more) are linked by the blog roll on all of the classes. My role is to cover PPA for 11 of the classes and I tend to use class blogs a lot for numerous reasons…to share children’s work, set homework, 100wc/5sc, quadblogging and children often access websites through links on the class blog. At present, I am trying to get parents more involved and have added a post about technology when they were young, the comments are trickling in.
    We have just appointed Digichamps who will be trained to do some of the admin work on each of the blogs, which will hopefully take some of the workload off me…managing 11 blogs can be hard work sometimes! A few of the class teachers add posts now and again and that is another aim, to get them more involved and for them to realise the value of class blogs.
    It is very much a two way blog, when I create a post, I always go back and comment on the children’s comments. They also know how to access comments for them and respond accordingly to me, or to children quadblogging or comments on their 100wc/5sc entry. I feel that it is a fantastic vehicle for so many different activities, the only thing that scares me is the e-safety side of things, but all comments and posts have to be approved by me, so it is controllable. The children are also learning internet etiquette and I am amazed how complimentary and polite they are to other children in our school and their quadblogging partners.
    Take a look and see what you think, as I said, they have developed at different rates. Upper ks2 busier and they tend to write their own posts too.
    Hope this is of use.

  2. Hi Sue,

    Below are a few examples to share.

    Class Websites:
    1) Mrs. Hamman’s Class Blog blogs.goaj.org/mrshamman — I appreciate that she has her students take ownership in writing some of the posts and comments.
    2) Fraher’s Class and Friends blogs.goaj.org/gfraher — She also has students write the posts and reply to comments.

    Professional Development blogs:
    1) AJUSD Campus Blogs blogs.goaj.org — This blog is mainly used for professional development and to answer simple tech questions I frequently get within the district.
    2) wwwatanabe wwwatanabe.blogspot.com — This blog is for PD for a global audience as well as my school district.
    3) Learning From Each Other blogs.goaj.org/fpesteach/ — This is a school blog that’s used for PD discussions.

    School News Blogs: Cougar News Blog cougarnewsblog.wordpress.com/ — This is a journalism class at our Junior High. Their blog posts are written completely by the students and sometimes picked up by local news also.

    Administration Blog: This and That jcastelhanothisandthat.blogspot.com — This is the blog of our Tech Director.

    Hope that helps, although I might be a little late in posting. Good luck tonight (morning for you?).

    Kind regards,
    Tracy

  3. Good morning from Hong Kong!

    http://qbsharingourlearning.blogspot.hk/

    We use our school blog as a window into the daily life at our wonderful school. 90% of our children come to school on a bus and we do not see parents and carers as regularly as we would like. The LMT are writing the blog at the moment. We hope that our modeling will encourage and enthuse our colleagues at school to do the same.
    Have a wonderful day.
    Neil Ringrose
    Vice-Principal
    Quarry Bay School
    Hong KOng

  4. Sue , I’m an ECE who works with infants through school-age and I have been blogging since 2006. I started as a way to communicate with my families to really show them in a timely manner what we were doing during our days. That original blog – countryfunchildcare.com – has evolved to include blogs about our cooking projects and nutrition ideas, homemade games (ccfungames.edublogs.org/), arts and crafts, iPad integration and app reviews (cftechnology.edublogs.org/), and Book files (book facts and extension activities) (countryfunbookfiles.edublogs.org/) and more details about our preschool lessons (ccthemeslessons.edublogs.org/). Over time not only my client families, but their extended families and other ECE professionals have begun to follow the blogs.
    I continue to post from the point of providing current families with information about what their children are doing. I cannot tell you how valuable blogging has been for communicating with families and documenting the growth of the children in my care.

  5. I would like to share two examples of blogs from our district:

    1) The first is our elementary campus blog http://woelem.wonecks.net/
    The name of the blog is White Oak Elementary, and we use it to keep parents and the community informed of important dates, school events, student activities, etc. We created a Google document at the beginning of the year and during student registration we subscribed parents to the school blog. We have received many favorable comments since its creation last year.

    2) Second is my classroom blog http://coconnections.wonecks.net/
    The name of this blog is C-O Connections which was named for the two teachers (Cranford-Odom) and the students (i.e. the Connections) It was the first student blog created on our campus and now that number has increased to over 1650 users/blogs. It was created as a hub for our curriculum. It contains links to frequently used Web 2.0 tools, pages that link to pdf assignments to be completed and submitted, and a blog listing of the connections we have made during our participation in the Student Blog Challenge. If you scroll over the names of the blogs, you will see a description of the location of some of the international blogs that we follow (and who follow us in return). Our elementary students now have individual blogs which have become the eportfolio that will follow them throughout their high school career. Blogging has changed the way my students learn and collaborate with each other. It has opened their eyes to the world around them.

  6. Hi!
    I now have my MHMS Daring School Library Blog with Edublogs & I love it! http://daringlibrary.edublogs.org/ We use it to connect with our students and community.

    I also have a professional blog http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/ so I can share the stuff we’re doing for other Ed Tech, ICT, & Teacher Librarians.

    As for book reviews – we use our Wikispaces & a Google Form for that. http://murrayhill.wikispaces.com/review_main

    Cheers! Can’t wait to hear you tonight!
    ~Gwyneth
    The Daring Librarian

  7. Hi Sue,

    It’s probably too late to share in now. I just found your invitation.
    But here is what I did with my students in English at University Pierre Mendès France. They were advanced level. I work on movies, as you will see in the immediate environment of my site:

    http://languagelearningresourcecenter.org/anglais/read_films/babel/index.htm

    The way I set about it was to create a blog –see below– which served as the interaction platform between the students as tey set about their task of commenting and reviewing one particular sequence of their choice in the movie Babel, freshly released on DVD at the time.

    http://babelproject.edublogs.org/

    You can read their exchanges in the comments they posted (44, no less). Of course we continued discussing their input in class, and after some shuttling back and forth, when I felt their production was polished enough I uploaded it on the website I used to interact with my students.

    In other words, the blog, ideal for off-class communication and slowly building up written production, served as the off-stage side as it were, and when everything was ready the productions were published onstage on the website, and they can still use them to showcase what they were able to do.

    I did that a number of times, notably with Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino as well, and it worked like a breeze.

    A great pleausre it was: creation on Edublogger, publication on regular website.

    Thanks for all your work, Sue.
    (and for your kind attention)

    Bernard

  8. I have used my edublogs site as a way to showcase my Grade 1 students’ writing and artwork. When they know that they have an authentic audience of readers all over the world, they strive to do their best work. Their parents appreciate being able to see photos of our classroom activities. Being able to share their news with grandparents, aunts and uncles across the country is another benefit.

  9. Hi Sue,
    You are welcome to my Grades 12(30), 11(20), and 10 blogs.
    hunniblog30.edublogs.org
    hunniblog20.edublogs.org
    hunniblog10.edublogs.org

  10. This is just getting started, but one of my teachers is having teams of students become cast members of The Merchant of Venice, and roleplaying communication to one another on personal blogs.
    Here is Graziano’s blog: http://graziano.inquiryhub.org/ So far there isn’t much there… but the characters will hopefully start to come alive soon! 🙂

  11. We use our classroom site for blogging and sharing our podcasts. We use it to pick up assignments and to drop them off. We also use the site to showcase a lot of what we do in class. The site acts as a jumping off point for research and for exploration of the themes and units we cover in class. It is a meeting place and a place to share ideas and comments about each others work and ideas. In short, our site is an extension of our classroom. Visit our site to see what it’s all about. We just hit over 50,000 visits. Not bad for a Spec Ed class’s blog site, eh? Way to go Blog Squad! http://mrborges.edublogs.org

  12. I use blogs at school with my primary and secondary school students.

    They usually post comments and exchange opinions.

    We post compositions

    We post assignments students prepare in groups using different web 2.0 tools like: glogster, prezzi, etc. (publishing)

    I post links that I believe my students will find useful.

    Also, my students resort to the blog to study since they can find there lots of material to study for exams.

    j72012.cumbresblogs.com
    pchujman.cumbresblogs.com

  13. We blog in French in the French Immersion program. We look at current events in video and text format and use the blog to summarize what we have seen and explore an interesting question about the event.

    1. Hi Dianne,
      I have some teachers who are interested in seeing French Immersion blogs. Is your blog open to the public?

      Thanks!

  14. I use my blog as a combination of class blog and book review blog since one of my goals as a language arts teacher is to connect my students to books they love. Each of my students also have a blog where they publish writing they complete for class as well as reflections about their reading.

    Mrs. McGriff’s Reading Blog can be found at http://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org/

  15. I have been working on my blog for two years and I’m really pleased with what is has become! My goal was for my K-5th grade students to do more of the writing and it is now truly a publishing house for them. They write book reviews, post slide shows and articles resulting from their independent research, and share creative work. We also have connections with schools around the world and the students love seeing comments from international friends.

    I still post class news for parents and teachers, but use tabs at the top of the blog for this (pages) and reserve the HOME PAGE for student work.

    Our school district promotes Edublogs, so I have an NEISDEdublog account, but was unable to list my website above. You can find our class blog at http://blogs.neisd.net/dlashe.

  16. Hi Sue

    As part of a project I did last year with regional off-campus students scattered around WA and studying flexibly I had a Course Blog rather than a Class Blog. The “ELFADA Course Blog” http://blogs.cyoc.wa.edu.au/elfadacourse/ My students had their own blogs (see ELFADA sidebar) and submitted work through posts using them as a form of simple portfolio. They did comment at times on the Course Blog but the main purpose of this blog was to provide asynchronous access to both: technical “how to” resources for tech tools; and help in the skills and knowledge required to achieve the course outcomes. This enabled students to access the resources outside our virtual class sessions and without needing to access the recordings.

    Cheers

    Jo

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