EDTC Module 8 Post: Edublogs

For my second technology tool inquiry, I wanted to do further research into a tool that I'd already used once with my students, blogging. As an English teacher, I'm constantly looking for ways to encourage student writing, and I had found extraordinary success in this area by getting my students plugged into blogs last year. However, the blogger service that I had used, Edublogs, had presented some hijinks, not the least of which had involved an extremely time consuming set-up. For this assignment, I decided to explore the blogger service to see if I had missed some easy step that would better enable blogging with my students in the future. Before covering my new discoveries though, I'll review my past experience with Edublogs.

When looking into creating blogs for my students, I first considered this blogging tool: blogger. However, I quickly realized that students wouldn't be able to access "blogger" from the firewall-protected computers at school. As many of them didn't have computers at home, it was imperative that I find a service that would enable school access. After some hunting on the internet, I found Edublogs. The ".org" status of the website seemed promising, as did its education-specific status. I spoke with our school's technology head, who confirmed the usability of this website, and I looked into getting started.

In creating my own Edublog, I discovered that access to email was necessary in the blog set-up. Again, because of the school's firewall protection, I knew this was problematic: students wouldn't be able to access their email. Furthermore, I wanted administrative control over the kids' blogs-- the best option seemed to be creating the kids' blogs FOR them.

Ran into another problem when attempting this, however: for every email address, there is only ONE user name permitted. Although one user can create multiple blogs (as I did for Periods 2, 3, 4, and 5), I wanted the kids to have their OWN user names. Only by giving them their own user names would I be able to track their blogging and commenting on their classmates' blogs-- an important aspect of my envisioned blogging requirements.

At this point, the project seemed stuck. If I couldn't create their blogs, and THEY couldn't create their blogs, what should I do? I could try to give them very specific directions as to how to create the blogs at home where they WOULD conceivably have email access, but what about the kids who didn't have computers? And what if they got stuck? Also, given my students' typical lack of motivation, how would I ensure they all created their blogs in a timely manner?

I decided that, if this was going to work, we HAD to set up the blogs at school, where all the kids would have computer access and where I could be available to help trouble-shoot. I emailed the district's technology wizard (forget his name-- whoops) and asked if there was any way I could get around this.

He wrote back with some stellar hacker advice: I could create multiple user names with my one email address IF I did some fancy work with the plus sign: "+." My tech guru explained that any text entered AFTER a plus sign in an email address wouldn't be recognized when an email was actually sent... However, the different text after the plus sign would register on Edublogs as a different email address, thereby enabling the creation of multiple user names. In other words, by just using:

greta.email@gmail.com

... I only was able to create one user name. But if I played with that plus sign:

greta.email+maryt@gmail.com
greta.email+brandonc@gmail.com
greta.email+paulqu@gmail.com

... I could create as many user names as I wanted-- which is what I ended up doing. The text entered after the plus sign was the kids' user names, which I selected, using their first names plus a couple initials of their last name. This provided me with some advantages: I was notified via MY email every time a student commented on another student's blog via email, which enabled me to track their blogging requirements. It also meant I knew the password of every kid's blog, and could appropriately monitor them. Furthermore, if any of the kids ever tried to get sneaky and change their password (which they did), I simply clicked the "forgot password" link when signing in with their user name, and a new password was delivered to my email.

The problem? Setting up each individual blog took HOURS. Literally-- it took an entire weekend to set up 70 student blogs, especially because for each one, I had to write down the student's individual user name and the automated password created by Edublogs. Furthermore, I had to copy these down twice: once in my teacher notebook, so that I had administrative access, and once on an instructional sheet I gave to the kids on setting up their blogs.

That was a huge, huge pain.

However, the benefits were enormous. Students that hadn't turned in a scrap of paper all year were writing weekly blogs. One boy commented, "The blog idea [is] EXCELLENT! It is such a great way to combine a fun part of everyday teenage life with learning and education." Another young man, who had been under the watchful eye of his parole officer all year and whose grade had typically been around an 8%, wrote weekly; I watched him help a friend of his write a blog one week, and when they clicked over to their other friend's blog to see if he'd written, Jose said, "Jonathan hasn't written anything yet?? Loser!" And the two boys got on Jonathan's back to make him write. Students were also excellent about commenting on one another's work. My favorite part of this project in fact was reading the students' thoughts to one another; they were kind, encouraging, and constructive. As a result, students have felt increasingly safe in being vulnerable. One girl wrote an incredible post about some very difficult things that had happened in her life; other students-- not just her friends-- responded with encouragement and praise for her courage in being so honest. Our class communities were enormously strengthened through these blogs. Furthermore, students began posting blogs of their own accord-- poems, short stories that they've written, and other thoughts.

One of my long-term goals as an English teacher is to help my students discover writing as a powerful, enjoyable means for their own expression. I have never seen more tangible evidence of students progressing towards that goal than by these independently posted blogs that they freely shared with their classmates. Without a doubt, I wanted to continue using student blogs as a stable component of my teaching instruction; the success was just too great to stop using them.

Because of the aforementioned issues however, I wanted to go back to edublogs and give it a good, hard search. I thought I MUST have missed some easy step in my set-up; surely, not all teachers who had created student blogs had to use a hacking trick to create them??

Unfortunately, my search came up empty. Edublogs apparently used to run a partner site called "learnerblogs.org" which was specifically created for student use; in fact, I found repeated warnings that student blogs created through edublogs rather than learnerblogs would be deleted. However, when one tries to go to "learnerblogs.org" one is directed here. In wading through Q&A forums on edublogs, I gathered that learnerblogs.org had been shut down... "So what now?" I wondered. "Where do the kids go?"

More bush-whacking through edublogs question forums ensued. (Note: edublogs has MANY Q&A forums; this means that most information is available somewhere, but is unbelievably difficult to find.) I gathered from my searching that my blogging project was actually a very unusual use of edublogs; most edublogs were used solely by teachers as a communication device for parents, for posting assignments, or for communicating with other educators. Finally, I found this page.

There's the answer then: pay for "edublogs campus," and you can get all your students set up with blogs, lickety split. Learnerblogs-- which I assume had been created in the same cost-free form that edublogs is-- had apparently been swapped out for a more lucrative option. If I wanted to do the blogging project again, I would either need to pay for the "campus" option, or I would need to use the same hacker trick I'd used before, and spend the same ghastly amount of time in the beginning to get them all set up.

Official cons of edublogs are:
1.) If you don't want to pay, you have to deal with lots of ads and significantly limited options for creating blogs
2.) It's not very user-friendly; information is incredibly difficult to find
3.) It's also still "getting on its feet": there were many times when my students would go to sign on, only to find that edublogs was temporarily "down." As I had to book the library computer lab every time we had a blogging day, not having edublogs available right when we had our blogging window was extremely frustrating.

Pros of edublogs are:
1.) It's accessible even with stringent school firewalls
2.) There's a large variety of blog designs for students to choose from. I found that the novelty of creating a blog that reflected students' individual personalities was a great "hook" to get students initially invested in the project.
3.) Customer service seems to be great; when I had a problem with one student's blog, I emailed tech help and got an email back within 24 hours from their main tech support staff member, Sue Waters.

All in all, although Edublogs is not the perfect web tool through which to conduct student blogging, it seems like the best option available-- in all my searching, it was THE only ".org" option I found. Many reviews suggested blogger, xanga, or wordpress, but they're all ".com"s and therefore run into the firewall issue. When doing this project next year, I'll have to consider whether or not I want to invest my money in the "edublogs campus" option... Or whether I want to invest my almost-more-precious free time into creating each student's blog using my hacker trick.

RELATED ARTICLES:
"How-To Blog Basics:" Article gives a basic overview and explanation of blogging
Plain English Does Blogging: Another great video overviewing blogs from the funny Plain English guys
Reflections on Student Blogging: A teacher writes about her personal experience blogging with her students and offers practical advice (This teacher used "21 classes" for her blogging; I don't know anything about this network, though it is another ".com.")
"Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects": A scholarly article reviewing the educational benefits of blogging. (Viewers may need to be signed into SPU to access link.)

EDTC Module 7 Post: Wikis

The wiki inquisition began with a google search, producing several articles that explained the myriad benefits of using a wiki site in the classroom. This article about Louise Maine transforming her classroom was convincing evidence of a wiki's academic potential. The article reports:

"The wiki is the hub for almost all class activity. Maine sets it so that only she and her students may edit it, though anyone in the world can view it. When students enter the classroom, they automatically know to look at the wiki for daily instructions, rubrics, and resources... They post their research, lab data, and observations on individual and group pages, which they can access later from home. After hours, the Web site functions as a parallel classroom, where students hold discussions, collaborate on group projects, and post their final work."

The article also stated, "Students like the wiki because it helps them keep track of their class work, they enjoy working on computers, and they often feel more comfortable participating in discussions online than in class. 'You feel free to express yourself because you can write down anything you want,' notes Cassie McConnaughey, who was a junior in Maine's Science for Living class. 'In the classroom, you might be afraid to say what you think out loud, but on the wiki, you can type and you don't have to say it.'"

I had noticed in my own experience with class blogging that kids often seemed to be more comfortable opening up in an online forum than out loud in a classroom. In this way, a wiki site seems as though it could contribute valuably to a class' feeling of community.

Another classmate of mine directed me to this article which, along with practical tips of wiki implementation, pointed out wikis as a great facilitator for inquiry based learning. I read several scholarly articles that further extolled the benefits of using a wiki site, including one written by another classmate!

It was clear that wikis could be a great classroom tool, but my dilemma then became HOW.

I explored "wikispaces" a bit, but then realized that there appeared to be a monthly charge associated with maintaining a private wiki space. After listening to a lecture overviewing the wiki tool "Wetpaint" given by David Wicks, I followed another classmate's suggestion and watched two fantastic Youtube videos made by the Seattle-based production company "Plain English."

The first gave an easy explanation of how to go about setting up a wiki site, even offering several suggestions at the end of different wiki sites one could use. Plain English gets bonus points for using cartoons and "hang loose" hand motions:


Then, per the other suggestions I'd been given about Wetpaint, I watched Plain English's video about that specific webtool. Wetpaint is especially great because, unlike other wiki venues, it's freeeeeee:



I'd been convinced of the benefits of a wiki, and had found a webtool that looked like a good one. Now I needed to practice USING it...

(After a couple hour's worth of work...)

I am happy to present my newly created WIKI site!

I created a home page, a daily reflection page, and uploaded an "introduction" picture under the photos tab. I created the site with the objective of using it with the Senior English classes that I'll be teaching next year. Although the site was mostly easy to use, I experienced some problems with the editing button not always properly loading. My "safari" browser also didn't always accommodate the various tools available. One other qualm with Wetpaint: there are a ton of ads, and I don't think all of them would be appropriate for my students. Although you can apparently "upgrade" and get rid of the ads, I'm sure that costs money... which is not ideal. I'm also not sure if my private school's extremely stringent firewall would allow access to this...

But in any case: I did it! And I know how to do it now!

EDTC Module 6 Post

I've noticed the discussion board posts this week have had a lot to do with teachers feeling overwhelmed and insecure about implementing the use of technology. Even us "young whippersnappers" in our 20's feel clueless and over-the-hill when looking at how our adolescent counterparts gobble up and master the newest technological fad... To use an old phrase, it seems like many of us feel like old dogs, trying to learn new tricks.

True, to some-- many, even-- technology is a pleasure to explore and employ, and it feels very natural to engage the invisible workings of a new technological toy. (Raising eyebrows at Prof. David Wicks). However, for those of us who have waited 8 months to get a new cell phone simply because the thought of learning how to use a new one is too frightening-- even though the phone that one has has lost the battery cover and has therefore been flashing its nudie cell-phone-self all over Seattle... Well, for those people, thinking about incorporating new technology into the classroom is an intimidating thought indeed.

However, frightening though it may be, I've discovered in the past that I don't give myself as much technology-savvy credit as I deserve. It may take a couple tries to learn something new, but it's possible. When I set my kids up with blogs last year, there were some trouble-shooting moments along the way, but I got help and the project moved forward. And what's more, the kids hugely benefited from the combination of technology and writing.

I think I've realized that this is something I need to force myself to keep current with. I commend districts that require-- and reward-- yearly technology training for their teachers, because I think we should all be making efforts to be up on the latest tools and machines. Our students benefit from our knowledge, and we make practical progress in avoiding stagnated methods. Furthermore, I don't think we should be above asking our students for help in implementing a new technological tool. If we've heard of something that sounds interesting, but don't feel sure of how to do it-- why not invite our students to take a crack at it? In all likelihood, they'd enjoy the challenge, and then students would be taking more ownership over their learning and education-- certainly a good thing!

In conclusion, even though I've yet to get a new cell phone, I've realized there are ways to avoid avoiding technology in the classroom!

EDTC Module 5 Post

Last week, I wondered how life might be different if I "unplugged" for a week.

Well, "LIFE" sort of let me try that out. After the wireless modem at my house experienced a mechanical failure, I found myself without internet at my home, all week long. To do my homework and access my online classes, I've had to work in cafes with wi-fi. This has had an interesting effect: I no longer am able to spend a half hour in the morning on facebook, nor an hour or two at night-- instead, I'm reading. Or spending time with people. Or sleeping. I have to be more focused and productive when I DO have access to the internet-- certainly not a bad thing. And furthermore, it's made my internet time-- which is usually a solitary event-- a social activity. I've made friends with some of the baristas at this cafe I've been going to; I interact with others when moving in and out of my seat, or plugging in my powercord. I work alongside other people, and am getting stimulated by the "outside" world, just as much as I receive stimulation from the "internet" world.

It hasn't been a bad thing!

It's still frustrating to have to drive somewhere just to check my email, and I haven't been able to send the same sort of regular communications to friends that I would if I WERE regularly accessing a social networking site like facebook. It's also a lot more expensive, since cafe time requires at least ONE coffee drink, and more often some food to go with.

Still-- I think it's been healthy to have a forced break! Oh, life. You silly thing, you.

On another note, I have the luxury of planning curriculum for next year after getting a job this last week (!!!) and have been planning class sites, class blogs, and perhaps a wiki component to go with. Clearly, this class has made an impact on me!

EDTC Module 4 Post

Module 4's reading was like getting doused with an ice cold bucket of water. I never would have expected a week's worth of material from a Technology class that cautioned against the increasing prevalence of technology! However, in hindsight, I appreciate the objectivity this converse view provided us with. We have been moving forward into the technological era with leaps and bounds, seldom asking questions. People in my generation accept new technological toys as though they're gifts from Santa Claus. We've raced from LiveJournal to Blogger to Myspace to Facebook to Twitter to I-Phones, to all of the above ON I-Phones... And oftentimes, these new tools are able to give us an improved experience of life, oftentimes they ARE good. But the speed at which we accept them is perhaps reckless, and I think Module 4's readings led us all towards that realization. Perhaps we should encounter these new technological advancements with a degree of skepticism, critically examining them and asking whether or not they really improve our quality of life.

When I first heard about Facebook, I dismissed it as a vanity project and as a waste of time. "Why do I need to be friends with people I already see all the time?" I remember asking my friend. Then, one boring day at work led to the creation of a profile, and I've been hooked since. My aunt and uncle asked me the other day how long I spent, per day, on the networking site. I hemmed and hawed at first: "Well... I'm in online classes, so I've got the internet up pretty much all the time, and just check in periodically." But then, considering the hour or two I'll spend on Facebook in bed before falling asleep... I answered with embarrassment, "Probably a couple hours a day." Their widened eyes and "Seriously??" responses made me check myself. Do I ACTUALLY spend that much time on a networking site every day?

I wrote my discussion post on "Unplugging"-- suggesting that teachers assign students to "unplug" from all electronics for a week. People responded that it was an intriguing idea, but I have to wonder if I would be able to unplug for a week. Could I check email just once per day...? Could I peace out from Facebook for a week? Could I avoid texting my friends, and call them instead, even if it was just to communicate a minute detail? I'm honestly not sure... But reading "The Machine Stops" made me want to try!

EDTC Module 3 Post

In reading this week's assigned reading which addressed where U.S. students' are at in the global scheme of technology comprehension and use, I found myself reflecting on the different countries I've been to, and whether or not that claim seems to line up. Certainly, the students that I worked with last year impressed me to no end with their technological savvy; from that perspective, U.S. students seem to be hanging in just fine. I've visited a number of countries in Europe, and I remember feeling that my tech know-how seemed pretty comparable to the people I was meeting. In Africa, I would say that technology was much less a part of every day life; the U.S. would be considered "at an advantage" in comparison there. However, when seeing the steps that countries like China, Australia, and South Korea are implementing to ensure their students achieve technological prowess, it seems as though our own American attempts are a bit lackluster. Furthermore, when reading articles about the hours that students spend in classrooms in countries like Japan, I admit, I worry about our kids keeping up in general-- in technology, or any other subject.

Is this okay, I wonder? Does America need to continue being the BEST in everything? Certainly, I think, we should try to achieve that excellence in our kids' education. But unless we agree to longer hours in school- something that no one likely wants to agree to-- and until education starts getting the funding it needs and deserves, I question how competitive our educational system will be in the global scheme.

Do Your Homework, then Throw it Away

Blog post for Module 2, EDTC "Learning with Technology"

As I read through my education books, I'm constantly encountering new descriptions of methods and philosophies and lesson templates and unit plans and approaches and ideas... And inevitably, about every SINGLE one, part of me will think, "Yes! Want to do that too!" For instance: in reading about wiki sites and online networks and blogs and so on for this "Learning with Technology" class, I come up with ideas of how to incorporate that into my English teaching curriculum. I think of how a whole UNIT could be shaped around a class wiki site-- students could post daily reflections and build projects within the site. Then however, I work on my "Survey Instructional Strategies" class. I read chapters about Inductive learning and Inquiry Method-- and think, "Yes! That too!" I imagine how I could incorporate those strategies into introducing literature, or making hypotheses about characters. In my head, once again, I've got several lessons planned out, using these methods. Then I work on my "Moral Issues in Education" class and read about instilling values in students, and discussing ethics, and raising deep questions, and leading students to form moral character, and think "Yes! Of course that one, that is IMPORTANT!" Once again, my hypothetical class is suddenly consumed in a flurry of activity: this time, engaging in deep discussions, getting into heated debates about moral issues, and wrestling daily with matters of the heart and soul.

But what actual teacher could manage all these things in one unit, for one class-- in one year?? And what kind of superhuman student could possibly process all the different directions these frenzied activities were taking him or her in?

Of course, some of these different activities can be done simultaneously-- kids can reflect on philosophy and moral quandaries ON a wiki site-- but the basic problem remains. After all: these are just the three classes that I'm working on this QUARTER. If I tried to pack every learning theory and method into my teaching that I've learned through this entire graduate school program (not to mention every other lesson I've ever learned in my life)... I imagine I would end up being astoundingly terrible at teaching. There would be NO time for basic processing.

One of my favorite theatre directors in high-school used to tell us, "Do your homework, and then throw it away." After being cast in a play, we were expected to do extensive script work and character analysis-- forming a character background and history... examining "objectives" behind different lines, and so on. This all was meant to enhance our performance. However, if, every time we were on stage, we were thinking, "Do THIS objective now. Remember the moment of your character's childhood that relates to this line! Make sure you move to the correct place on stage!"--- the performance would inevitably be stilted and jarring. It would be wooden, contrived, forced. Therefore, our teacher told us: "Do your homework... but then throw it away." The idea was to have all these tools at our disposal-- but in the actual performance, we had to just let it go. We had to play it IN the moment, and go with our gut, and our heart, trusting that the work we had done would guide us in the subtle way it needed to.

I conclude-- I think-- that teaching must go the same way. I have learned, at this point, MANY different methods of teaching, all which promise to be effective. This week's inductive and inquiry learning are two more "tools" to add to my teaching arsenal. But I think, after learning all this, what I'll ultimately need to do is "throw it away." I will need to go into my classrooms with open eyes-- I will need to analyze what my students need most, what their responses are to different types of lessons, how they seem to process best, and what teaching method will work best with THIS particular group, to accomplish THIS particular learning objective. I'll need to play it IN the moment, and go with my gut, and my heart. I've done my homework-- and I'll continue to do it. But I think-- in order to really teach effectively-- there comes a point where we need to throw it away.