Blogging in the ClassroomBlogging in the classroom can be a rich experience for students. Not only can students strengthen their writing skills, but, because blogging is a digital activity, students can integrate digital rhetoric in their blogs. They can create and upload podcasts, videos, presentations, and interactive communication between authors and audience members. At the right is a sample blog assignment that Lisette Blanco-Cerda has issued to her sophomore level British literature II students and, as examples of student blogs, two British literature I students of Lisette Blanco-Cerda.
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Digitally Do-Able:
How do I...
integrate blogging in the classroom? |
Electronic JournalingElectronic journaling offers a space to work through and develop an understanding of any topic imaginable. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for students to post text and to add photos or clip art to help make their writing more interesting.
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Create Write Now is an electronic journal about journaling. It offers tips, prompts, and resources to help get started.
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Creative WritingBlogs can also be used in a creative writing classroom. Since many blogging platforms are feature-rich in presentation and themes, students can better tailor their blog's appearance to its content. Thus, students will take into consideration such concepts as tone, purpose, and audience for their writing. For students who venture into video creation and production, their blog is a good place to house their video while also being a good place to write a reflection on their video (or photo or artwork or musical piece) production and creation.
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Courage 2 Create is maintained by fiction writer Ollin Morales. This sample blog is about writing his first novel and how life kept getting in the way. He offers writing advice as well as strategies to deal with life's challenges.
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TravelogueFor students who travel, whether it's in a study abroad program or on a local field trip, they can blog about their experience, what they learned, people they met, sounds they heard, and any other journey-related idea that interests them. For students who cannot/do not travel, virtual field trips can provide wonderful fodder for writing, thereby calling on the students to engage their imagination.
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Unlike Blogger, Word Press, or Tumblr, Travel Pod is built exclusively for travelers.
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MagazineAn assignment that engages students' creativity--the highest form of critical thinking--language use, visual rhetoric understanding, and group work skills is creating a magazine. There are many blog magazines, like Salon, and many more print journals venturing into the online world, like USA Today and People Magazine.
Blog magazines are especially good for thematic studies. For example, a class may be studying issues of social justice. A blog magazine can focus on the theme of social justice and individual writers can create and contribute on individual topics like girls education in the Middle East, the digital divide in the United States of America, and poverty's effects on children. Working collaboratively, the class can determine what article goes where, what images to use, whether or not they will interview people and upload them to the blog magazine, and on and on. An online magazine can be a great collaborative project to work on with fellow students, or a final project that allows individual students to show their talents. |
FlipSnack lets users turn pdf magazines into flippable web magazines.
This sample is by Pat Fallon. He uses a flippable magazine format for his electronic portfolio to promote his magic act.
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Photo JournalA blog devoted to photo journaling calls on critical thinking, creativity, and the need to understand visual rhetoric. A photo journal blog can be assigned to encourage students to use visuals along with concise wording to express themselves. Creating a photo blog can be a way to challenge students to use words more efficiently so that they add to visuals that the students choose to share on their photo journal blog. The microblogging site Tumblr offers an easy-to-use format for such an assignment. Tumblr also allows for video integration.
Using blogging in the classroom can be a way to be part of collaborative activities. Blogging in the classroom also offer opportunities to publish work in a forum that allows contributors to get and give feedback. This not only conveys the relevancy of writing and understanding how language is used, it also heightens the overall online writing experience. |
eHow offers tips to get started, organize and keep a photo journal.
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Photo: TWU Flickr