I have, for a number of years, required that the students create an electronic portfolio using Golive, instead of a final exam. Some of your the recent Eportfolio posts and comments make me wonder if a wordpress blog might be another way of creating this and making their personal archives part of the portfolio.

I am using NetNewsWire to bring it all together, but Bloglines would work as well, and am not entirely sure how it will all come together.

I had to laugh at your Tandy Coco computer you mentioned in your last post. I won’t mention my age but when I started teaching Tech many years ago that was the computer I had in my lab….complete with ten cassette recorders.

A long time ago I posted about how circular everything was begining to feel. Coding by hand then to Claris Home Page-Cyberstudio-Golive then back to the current world recalling what meant! But as you mentioned these tools flatten the world (just finished the World is Flat) so I can read a post from The Island in our place here in Abu Dhabi on another Island. By the way we are playing with podcasts as well!!

Glad you enjoyed an extended break!
I am enjoying the idea of using categories with student names, as it works great!
I, too, will be starting Febuary with a new class of students to try the blog experiment with.
I am intrigued by your comment about aggregating to student names. Did you use bloglines to aggregate? Thanks for trying it out. I will give it a shot, as this could be a helpful tool for students to use. I am not sure if it is the coffee or what, but I am feeling very confused about this idea and its applicability.
What are your ideas regarding this? Will you use an aggregator like bloglines to keep files with each student name? Are you looking to archive student posts, or just keep up to date on their work, or is this something that students would use to track and archive their own work?

Sorry for all the questions. I think I am just a little off track here.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

The wiki sounds interesting. I must admit I have never been involved in wikis before.

Your service uses WordPress and from my readings on the WordPress Support Site you are able to aggregate by students. I went to your student site and tried it out adding the following URL to my aggregator http://herot.learnerblogs.org/tag/elbow/feed. With this I was able to aggregate everything that Elbow had written, including Elbow’s editing issues!

Gary

Thank you for the input and the information…and thanks for the ‘artist’s blog’ addy again. I had checked it out earlier, but when you mentioned it used student names as categories, I went to it again. It is interesting to see something working in the way you were thinking to use…seems to work ok.

I was wondering about your last thought of “aggregating by students and by topics” … I am wondering if this is possible using a free hosting service such as http://www.learnerblogs.org/ or if what you are talking about would only be possible if you hosted wordpress on your own server or webspace? I am using blogs that are hosted by learnerblogs, which uses wordpress.

thanks for the info…more thinking for the break…

Merry Christmas, I look forward to seeing your evolving blogs…
by the way, I haven’t been able to access your class blog lately…is it offline now, or is the address wrong?

My first attempt with classroom blogging was two tier, a team blog and individual student blogs. I set up WordPress for each student and used a WordPress plugin to aggregate all of the student posts into the team blog. Currently, however, I just have one blog with all of my students set up as users of the blog.

you mention the following…

I am wondering about adding their names to the category list on the team blog, so when they post, they just click their name as a category as well as any other appropriate categories to which they belong. They can then track their posts (as can I) by just clicking on their name in the category. That is my brainwave for now, and would take the place of having students use their own blogs…

This plan of making each student a category then having the students post to topic category as well as their name category is the set up of the Art Blog my daughter’s class is using. You can see this at the Artists Block Blog .

When you mentioned ” They can then track their posts (as can I) by just clicking on their name” my mind clicked on aggregating posts by student. I mean in your case you could aggregate by students and by topics. Never thought about doing that myself but when you mentioned it the light clicked! I have read online that this possible using WordPress so I think I will use your suggestion and try to set this up in the New Year, with my second semester group.

Have a good break!

Gary

Thanks once again for your comments. I have read them previous to this comment, but wanted to revisit them before commenting…
I am rethinking my blog setup as well right now. Currently I have a three-layered approach, which seems to be too much in the way of layers…I am liking yours as it is the full package it seems all in one layer (although it sounds as if students have their own blogs as well, so perhaps there are two layers?)
My initial thoughts in setting up blogs for my literature class were to 1) set up a homepage blog, which is working quite well.
2) set up a team blog, which is slowly gaining some speed. very slowly…
3) in the process of setting up students for the team blog, they all created their own personal blog. It is the only way I could use http://www.learnerblogs.org/ and add students to the team blog. So…they each have a personal blog.
My intent was that they would begin using it, but I have not made it a requirement.
Feedback from students is that they get frustrated over having to constantly sign in and out of computers and then blogs…although they have no quams about checking their email…
I am wondering about adding their names to the category list on the team blog, so when they post, they just click their name as a category as well as any other appropriate categories to which they belong. They can then track their posts (as can I) by just clicking on their name in the category. That is my brainwave for now, and would take the place of having students use their own blogs…
I am really wondering about this, if it will reduce strain and a layer of logging in, but I also hesitate to dissuade students from setting up and using their own blogs…..Ideas?
I am relieved to hear that your ‘digital native’ students give you grief over ed-blogging assignments. I was beginning to think I had squashed the whole thing, and, on my last assignment, ended up backing out of it being a blog assignment and allowing students the option to either post to a blog or keep a written log. The result is that students seemed to relax a bit, and it seems that several have decided to post their log to the team blog , which has lifted my spirits somewhat.
I like your verbage on blogging being a ‘one to many process’ and how that changes the expectations that have been ingrained in students…I agree, this is a huge shift in what students are used to and the feeling of ’safety’ is eroded in a way.
My experience is also similar in the ‘rush to implement blogs’, although I feel as if I did not rush, but spent a lot of time digging and investigating. I think where I lacked in this case was in the actual ‘nuts and bolts’ of blogging in a literature classroom…what would it look like? what would I expect of students as far as content goes? I also feel as if I didn’t spend enough time teaching blogging to students, but just got them to jump in and get going on it. For example: I haven’t gone over linking to other blogs…we are still on a single post, single comment kind of style, which is quite one-dimensional.
I am hoping at some point to get students into the multi-layered approach of linking within their blogs to other knowledge….
I am not sure if this will happen in the context of my lit. class, but I will be starting an English 12 class at the end of Jan. which I hope will be a smoother intro. to the world of blogging.

Looking back, I feel there is a lot I could’ve done better, but not without the knowledge of just getting in there and trying things out. What seemed to be seemless to me became problematic, and vice-a-versa.

However I need to spend more time on, my curricular objectives and my essential questions. The scaffolds I provide that would allow the students to begin as a casual user and end up as a more purposeful user need to be more clearly considered.

I think your words above echo where I find myself…as you say, back to Education 101!

thanks, gary

by the way, your class blog looks deep!

The students I teach use the tools of the digital natives. Cell phones, Ipods, MSN, using bittorrent to get the latest television show from North America. From an educational perspective, however,the issue is exactly what Ben and you are both saying “ casual use does not demand a working understanding, but use in the classroom doesâ€?. Casual use is one of my main reasons for starting classroom blogging. Much of the use I have seen revolves around a diary based exposition of a students day to day life. Students that either don’t worry, or are oblivious, to the fact that what they write is in the public domain. Through the tech topics I cover and the blogging that they are required to do I hope they begin to get a better idea of the digital world they are part of. Non casual blogging requires analysis, research and a lot of thought so I don’t get surprised when students give me the “oh no not again”.

During the discussion I had with the students on blogging I mentioned that I found writing and publishing to a blog difficult. I always have that moment of panic prior to pressing the publish button. A number of them shared that they had similar fears. As both you and Aaron Campbell mention these fears are in part due to a disconnect between their past classroom experience and this current one. It is fundamentally different that what they are used to. All their educational lives writing has been a one-to few process. Blogging is a one to many process and a number of students found the fact that anyone can read what they write overwhelming.

I guess the biggest thing I have to do is to be reflective and examine my fundamental lesson design…..back to Education 101. My rush to implement the blog near the end of last year and the start of this one lead to a lack in the depth of my preparation. My initial work was all on the tech side. How do I setup WordPress? How do I modify the look of the blog. The famous five minute install they talk about now takes me five minutes but back then took me a lot longer. However I need to spend more time on, my curricular objectives and my essential questions. The scaffolds I provide that would allow the students to begin as a casual user and end up as a more purposeful user need to be more clearly considered. A lot to think about…….after the holidays!!