07.18.08
Thing 13 – I really did wear my PJs!
8:03pm.
Our assignment for “Thing 13” was to “attend” one of the archived K12 Online Conference sessions from 2006 or 2007 and then comment on it. Our fearless K12 Learning 2.0 course leader said we could have our PJs on while completing this one, so it’s Friday night, and I am snuggled up in an oversize t-shirt and PJ pants to listen to and read through Anne Davis’ presentation about the steps she follows when introducing blogging to 5th grade students.
9:48pm.
Who knew opportunities like this existed on the Web?! I loved having the chance to sit down and take part in this activity. I adopted the role of a student as my teacher (Anne) suggested, and I completed a WebQuest all about the questioning, writing, proofing, sharing, commenting, and reflecting processes involved in blogging. Everything I needed to know was spelled out on Anne’s wiki.
I like how Anne’s presentation included blogging tips from actual student bloggers: Alejandro and Angel, for example; I also thought that Derrick’s blog could be used as an example of how thinking about layout, design, and color-scheme is important for new student bloggers to consider. It was difficult to read.
This online session raised a question in my mind about whether or not I should keep future class blogs private: while viewing a page of Anne’s wiki I came across a comment posted by a “mystery person” on a child’s blog. It read, “You are the worst blogger in the whole world I will never come on this site again.” Hmmm…while this could be a potentially damaging comment, it would also provide the perfect opportunity for a teachable moment. Now I see why a blogging policy is an important, useful tool to develop with student and teacher bloggers. This session also got me thinking about my past experiences with student bloggers. I never went into the kind of detail or laid the kind of groundwork that Anne shared in her session with my students. Was I going about blogging in a rushed way? YES! I found this link to student bloggers’ reflections to be an eye-opening resource: would my past students write reflections like these? NO, because we jumped into blogging without the sense of purpose and direction that Anne’s students had.
I just finished Jerry Spinelli’s book Stargirl for the third time, and in a Q & A at the end, Spinelli says that he has many rules for when he sits down to write, but his number one rule is to always write about what he knows and cares about. In this online session, Anne interviewed a child about his thoughts on blogging and shared it online in audio form. When asked what he would blog about if he had his own weblog, Zachary’s response was that he would write about what he cares about: his life, how it’s going, and what’s going on in the world around him. I think Zachary’s blogging–and other students’ blogging about noticings, wonderings, analyses, evaluations, and understandings–would make Spinelli proud.
