Monday, June 30th, 2008 Blogging Communities

My first official session this morning was titled 'Blogging Communities in the Classroom', with Dr. Konrad Glogowski, from Canada. He is an instructor at the University of Toronto.

I loved Dr. Glogowski's first quote of the morning, which was taken from the Shell Corporation's commercial: "The blank page--still the most challenging environment there is!"

Dr. Glogowski earned his PhD recently on blogging with his eighth grade students. While beginning the blogging, his main goal was to let the kids work alone, and he found out that the kids didn't need him anymore as an instructional leader in their classroom. THEY became the instructional leaders independently.

Dr. Glogowski's steps to beginning:
1) Have students create a community of learners, which is a safe, comfortabel, and supportively engaging group. These communities will have constant interaction with each other--online, or in person.
2) Extend the classroom discourse, by acknowledging student work and successes---EVEN IF it may not pertain to your curriculum!
3) Redefine your presence as an educator. You need to let go of the reins and no longer find yourself teaching at the front of the room. Your students should be blogging about their learning.
A. Participate as a reader--NOT an evaluator--respond to students in writing, not with a grade
B. Show that you are human! Respond based on your own past, experiences or memories.
C. Make every student heard on the community, by acknowledging their engagement in blogging. Validate their work--they LOVE being validated!


If your students are doing their best work, you should not be able to read their writing on a daily basis. If you can, your students are not writing enough on their blogs, so meet with them to improve their writing skills.
Dr. Glogowski found that his students were much more expressive when they aren't going to get a grade of 14/20 for their work!

As Educators, we must:
*encourage expressive writing in their blogs
*extend classroom discourse
*support interactions by adopting a reader's voice
*allow students the freedom to be independent workers, problem solvers, writers and thinkers
*create a supportive place where all content can be easily seen and shared

Dr. Glogowski shared that his eighth grade blogs were stored on the district's server. He did not allow others outside of the "community" to make postings about pages, so as to protect the authenticity of thoughts, opinions, and feelings that were communicated on the blogs.

He found that "school writing"--the writing that MOST students are required to do is:
-voiceless and generic
-meant for one set of eyes (the teacher who gave the assignment)
-written for one purpose only
-usually conforming to a rubric or specific guidelines
-presented as a skill to be acquired--not from the inner self
-determined by the teacher, based on content, not what the student wants

"21st Century writing" is:
-expressive
-informal talk or discussion
-using content over form or a directive as an assignment
-a sharing of thoughts or opinions, with rich language embedded
-a validation of kids and their thoughts, opinions, feelings, etc.
-meaningful

As a result of 21st Century writing, kids:
-are validated and become much more involved in the learning process
-care about their inner voice
-have a greater awareness of a global world, and knowledge of collaboration
-learn how to be contributors to their own communities
-aren't imposed with grades and rubrics