Here are some tasks to get you thinking about how you could use blogs in the classroom:
1. On your own blog, write a post in which you discuss the following things:
  • What you see as the main advantages and opportunities of using blogs in the classroom
  • What you see as the main obstacles to or issues with using blogs in the classroom
  • How you might be able to incorporate blogs into your teaching. Think about teaching groups, units of work, whether you will use a class blog only or set up student blogs, etc.

For additional inspiration, check out Sue Kambalu’s post here, where she lists a veritable plethora of blogs in different subject areas!  She has a lot of other posts on blogging too - use the categories on the right of her blog to find more.

2. Visit the blogs of at least 2 other participants and comment on their posts.  NB: you will have to moderate the comments of others on your own blog - click here for instructions on how to do this.

3. Like every good task, this has an extension activity!  This is for you to get familiar with your blog in your own time, as only then will you have the confidence to use one with students.  Explore the links to edublogs tutorials on this blog (see Judy’s post here), or you can click here to go to the APS training blog, with instructions on various aspects of blogging.  As a bare minimum, I recommend being able to:

  • customise your theme and add basic widgets (there’s a world of widgets to explore later!)
  • Write a post and write a page
  • Upload pictures
  • Add a link to your blogroll and customise headings on your blogroll so you can organise links
  • Manage comments

Happy blogging!