I've been using Kidblog in my classroom for 3 years now and I absolutely LOVE how blogging engages kids in writing and representing and communicating. I don't think I truly understood the impact having an audience has on writing. I've always permitted my students to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted on their blog - within reason. We spend considerable time discussing what's appropriate and what isn't and I insist they treat our blog as an extension of our classroom. Other than that, they are free to use it as they see fit. I will often give them assignments on the blog as well and that opens up many opportunities for discussions around purpose and presentation. I've also been pretty tight with security. Like many people, I am wary of online predators, and we have many discussions about what we can do to stay safe online.
I think I'm ready to start taking more risks, though. I would like to open up my students' blogs to a wider audience and see what happens. I wonder how parents would feel about that? I think rather than dive right in, I would rather partner with one other class, somewhere else in the world, and have them share each others' blogs and see how that goes. I think it would also be really neat to create a story together with this other class using a wiki. Hmmmm. I need to start looking into that.
The first new thing I'm trying this year, though, is Edmodo. Our blogging space on Kidblog has turned into more of a Facebook type space than the "real" blogging I would like them to do. A friend of mine raves about Edmodo and has used it with much success in her junior high classes, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. So, my students have been told that their blog is a space to publish polished pieces of poetry and prose (sorry, got caught up in the alliteration) and that we would be using Edmodo for more social interactions and class discussions. I haven't played with it much myself yet, so I'm still not sure of all it can do, but it certainly appears to provide lots of opportunities. I've already posted a quick message to my class and 2 polls - simple "yes" or "no" questions about technology they have available to them. I'm excited to learn about what it can do right alongside my students.
Today, in the computer lab, I briefly introduced my students to Kidblog and had them start typing up a poem they had written in Language Arts. I was planning to introduce Edmodo as well, but we ran out of time. I quickly mentioned to them that if they wanted to check it out at home, they would have to go to the Edmodo website and that the group code they would need was in my Kidblog post. I didn't really think any of them would check it out just yet, but when I logged in tonight just to see, I discovered that 2 of them had. They had both left messages and one of them had even posted a picture and changed her profile pic!!! I so love seeing this kind of initiative!
