As the Digital Chalkie team were completing the second in their series on blogging (sorry to have been unable to participate) some of my colleagues at QUT have just released a book on the topic…
Uses of Blogs, an anthology of scholarly essays edited by Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs, is now officially available.
Axel is well-known in certain circles for his work on the idea of produsers - a concept that should be finding its way into the thinking of all educators.
Here’s the official blurb on the book:
Uses of Blogsbrings together scholars and practitioners from a wide range of fields to offer a broad spectrum of perspectives on current and emerging uses of blogs. Blogging is rapidly developing into a mainstream activity for Internet users, but beyond the popular headlines, there has been very little serious research done on their actual application in specific, everyday contexts. One reason for this is that the variety of styles of blogging—news blogs and political commentary blogs, marketing blogs, corporate dark blogs, fictional blogs, educational blogs, to name just a few—make it difficult to generalize and to imagine how blogs might be used in particular environments. This pathbreaking new book demonstrates the application of blogs and blogging in the full range of industrial and social contexts.
Recently, Brad Hicks, Paul Reid, Kelly Anderson, Doug Symington and Reg Whitely gathered online at various corners of the internet to discuss the topic of “Classroom Blogging” in a live webcast. A big thank you to Brad Hicks for his webcasting expertise and for hosting the show. Also to the engaging interviewees and chatroom participants.
Digital Chalkie Webcast #1 Part a: Classroom Blogging (MP3 – 9.9MB – 42min 58sec)
00:00 - Introductory explanation of Digital Chalkie website and its aims. Brad http://www.web2learn.net/ interviewing Paul about Digital Chalkie.
04:50 - Brad talks about the webcast and gives instructions about how people can contribute to the live webcasts.
09:20 - Paul Reid’s take on collaborative writing and the functional literacy opportunities provided by an Instiki Wiki: http://www.instiki.org/show/HomePage
14:35 - What blogging is and how it can benefit students? Kelly Anderson talks about her recent experiences with blogging in the classroom and how it could be their reading and viewing journal. Kelly uses edublogs.org - http://www.edublogs.org/ based on Wordpress - http://www.wordpress.com
16:05 - How were the blogs set-up and what tasks were set? Kelly talks about the naming conventions for student blogs that we used with Kelly’s class to avoid identification of students
26:03 - Doug Symington from http://www.samlab.com joins in to discuss blogs and share some of his experiences from the blogosphere. Doug is a regular on http://www.edtechtalk.org and hails from Vancouver, Canada.
0:00 Brad fields a question via eChalk from Terri van Zetten http://missterri.wordpress.com/ regarding bullying in the classroom via blogging. Doug, and Kelly discuss this.
02:45 Paul asks how Kelly and Brad have set up their accounts to protect students from potential bullying behaviour. They explain the administrator settings http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities and setting up Bloglines as an aggregator for reading/keeping up with student blog posts. http://www.bloglines.com
28.40 Reg Whitely joins in talks about setting up Wordpress with some of his Year 7 students. http://beachlands.wordpress.com/ (NB: unfortunately the live stream starts dropping out at this point).
For Digital Chalkie’s live show Brad Hicks and I chose to use the word webcast because the audio is released live (streamed) onto the web. The streaming audio comes through like a radio station to iTunes or Real Audio as the user chooses -unlike this podcast, which is released as an MP3 or in an RSS enclosure after the webcast has occurred. In time we will post an enhanced podcast with links and pictures etc that users will be able to subscribe to within iTunes (for example) and which will be archived on the Digital Chalkie podcast page.
Another ‘live’ feature of the webcast that accompanies the streaming audio file is that listeners can join the text-based chatroom. We use Skype to record all conversation within the ‘SkypeCast room’. We will release a podcast of the event which will be an edited version accompanied by a transcript of the webcast.
We welcome the participation of other Digital Chalkies to the follow-up Classroom Blogging Webcast 2 next Sunday. If you have any questions on the topic of blogging please send them to webcast@digitalchalkie.com and we will raise them during the show. Please provide us with some feedback, discuss the topic and the new Digital Chalkie webcast in the comments below.
Join us live for Part 2 of Classroom Blogging with the live webcast from 17.00hrs GMT+8 on Sunday July 30.
Digital Chalkie is about to begin live webcasting with the assistance of the Worldbridges network. The ‘webcast’ technique allows us to have listeners ask questions live via the associated chatroom and skypecast. The show will be aimed at bringing teachers together to discuss the use of technology in the classroom, allowing them to share their experiences and gain support from those with expertise in particular areas. It is hoped that these discussions will be webcast on a fortnightly basis. Join Paul Reid and Brad Hicks (and some special guests - hopefully) as they kick off the first Digital Chalkie webcast with a discussion about “classroom blogging” this Wednesday. We will be discussing some of the technical solutions available eg. Wordpress, Blogger, Moodle etc and best practice pedagogy associated with the use of blogs. The first show will go to air on Wednesday the 12th of July at 2.00pm West Australian Time (4pm AEST, 6am GMT). Shows will be available in a ‘podcast’ format after the show. Prior to the show you are invited to submit questions/issues for discussion to webcast@digitalchalkie.com. We’d love to have Digital Chalkie authors join the chatroom and the live discussion (via Skype) on the day. More details about how to do this will be posted in the next few days. A podcast and transcript will be available shortly after the event. We look forward to your support and suggestions for the show.
I have been checking out the online blog with upper primary and secondary. Most students have really enjoyed it and love having their own domain name. I have used wordpress.com. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the secondary Aboriginal ESL classes attempted to write their first blog with Standard Australia English. The amount of reading needed to set up a blog and change the theme and profile was daunting for many of our kids so the original lessons were full on for me as the teacher. My year 4s have started a class blog, I have only given them one username at this stage and they write their first name at the bottom of the blog. I think it will only be 5 top students who will really use it, but that will be good extension activity for them. The next step is to help the teaching staff understand that these children want to be part of the Net, to publish; not just view it and make PowerPoint presentations.
Bryn Jones: Channel 4 in the UK has £50million to develop new media content. Ewan McIntosh has some role in it as Digital Commissioner for Scotland. Jobs open now! http://www.4ip.org.uk/
Thomas Goodwin: Paul Reid has pointed educators in the right direction (create and collaborate) however he started from an incorrect premise; The Learning Federation's Digital Resources are completely different from the...
Patricia Corby: Phew, what a terrific wealth of useful info here! Thanks Paul. In reference to this comment "They need to move from static to dynamic in form" as an overall comment it is relevant but being fair some are...
Paul Reid: If everyone's Math is correct the Teaching & Learning Federation pays $20k for jpeg pictures Learning Objects! eg these ones shown here http://www.thelearningfederati on.edu.au/for_teachers/what...
Janice Millard: its not fair that my class can't go on rain forest maths because of other people copying we were going to do a test on it but it was closed down my class was very upset not very happy!
Julie Squires: I love the TLF learning objects but cannot get teachers to use or even look at them!!! I wonder if the type of computer access they require is not what's available in most schools? What I mean by that is...
Ken Allan: Kia Ora Paul It seems a pity that learning objects seem to be always tarred with the same brush, especially since the curriculum is so broad. Not all disciplines favour learning objects and there are some good...
Karen Mutton: I will admit that there is a great deal of variety within the learning objects. Some are fantastic and engaging and some leave a lot to be desired. Many students become frustrated that they are unable to save...
Michael Pate: Digital Learning Objects are reusable technology-based resources that aim to equip teachers with tools to improve the quality of teacher learning. The Learning Federation is one Australian-based provider of...
David Hillard: I think that the learning objects are another tool that we utilise as teachers to make learning engaging and relevant for students. The challenge as mentioned by others is to help teachers integrate these...
Tomaz Lasic: For my 20c (we have a long way to $123 mil :-) I can see Paul's argument that TLF objects are often used as (very expensive) digital busy work and/or 'eye candy' with the effect of a deadening worksheet when...
Tim Hand: Always enjoy a revisit of the LO debate-thanks Paul. Teachers do have trouble unzipping, access may be limited to the TLF objects (depending on jurisdictions licensing/discovery & access points). But to...
Robin Petterd: As someone who produces these types of learning objects, I really think the whole model has had it's time. I think that most of the interactive design models used in them are out of date and yes students see...
Patricia Corby: What the TLF produce in terms of Learning Objects and Digital Resources are excellent. I depend on them for my online teaching and also for F2F when sourcing authentic resources. The digital resources are...
Kim Flintoff: I tend to concur Paul. Some years back, I was on a committee that seemed to be chasing little more than arbitrarily endorsing a content creation program. I saw committee members effusing over content that was...
T Goodwin: Using a purely economic aurguement in this discussion is flawed from the start because the real cost of the digital content produced by The Learning Federation is shared by the 3 million plus school children...
Tony Forster: Hi, My reply to Stephen is on another list but not Ozteachers Stephen: What are people's thoughts regarding The Le@rning Federation? Rob: - many activities feel like they hem you in - highly scripted, limited...
Jamie kelly: I must say I am currently in the stage of completing my own eportfolio as part of my university degree and find them beneficial and a great showcase of skills.
Blitto: Great video Paul. Thanks mate - I'll use some of this at my workshop at CONSTAWA this weekend. Aren't you worried?: 55th out 55. Kids learn ICT DESPITE schools not because of schools. The virtual closing down of...
Steve: Its kind of like an internet within the internet (also open to abuse like the internet). What amazes me is that we have a mobile phone network with all of its towers and Telstra's new broadband wireless network also...
Firas: Excellent! From a research point of view this tool is invaluable.
Daniel: The ownership issue is ultimately a technology issue: we're still living in the post-mainframe days. The mainframe died in the early 1980s (well, it's still living in certain places, long live Cobol!) and was...
Paul Reid: Some interesting comments here. Students need a creative/communication machine that is not a business machine purely for productivity. The total cost of ownership is currently outweighing the total opportunity...
Blitto: Hey guys! Please can you let us know about whether the podcast is up yet? ta Blitto
Paul McMahon: Hi Ken, I like you point about ownership. Theoretically in a perfect world kids would bring along whatever laptop they liked and all apps would be accessible online. Things are changing and we may be there...
Wayne Eglinton: What about the have nots? Many many families can not afford $250 a year.
Ken from The Great South Land: It's odd that we still tend to think that schools need to somehow own or control the computers that kids use. As a result, we've created our own ball-and-chain of providing maintenance,...
Joe Jurczyk: Another example of the open system - be it one that doesn't necessarily rely on "knowledge" as the end product, or judging the quality of that knowledge - is Facebook. The growth is certainly exponential and...
Kerrie 'Smik': Thanks for the posting Paul. Certainly is a busy and exciting time. There will be a beta launch of the new my edna tool too.
Kim Flintoff: Hi Richard, What I was intending is that the comic is a method of presenting a record of what transpired - it can also be creative output and a reflective tool.. all manner of uses depending upon context and...
Richard Horowitz: I might be a little lost but is this creating a comic from a virtual world to be read in the real world via the internet in order to elicit an emotional reaction from the inner world of these real life...
Kim Flintoff: Hi Judy, Thanks for the feedback - I'm happy to facilitate similar events - I have a presence in the Teen Grid. I'm sort of involved with the Skoolaborate project through Westley - so if there's a way I can...
Kim Flintoff: Hi Patrick, I'm weighing up whether the comment is being a bit sarcastic or whether its actually a compliment... I hardly thinki its a brillaint idea... just a variant of other things I''ve encountered... I'm...
As the Digital Chalkie team were completing the second in their series on blogging (sorry to have been unable to participate) some of my colleagues at QUT have just released a book on the topic…
Digital Chalkie is about to begin live webcasting with the assistance of the 