Earlier today, I managed to listen to the audio file of Jeff Utecht’s K12Online Presentation, Sustained Blogging in the Classroom.   (I gave up trying to get the video file - for some reason my downloading time is excruciatingly slow at the moment).

I was particularly interested in this presentation as our classroom blog is up and running - since earlier in the year - and apart from the occassional post from a couple of students, it’s yet to really take off.  I thought that it was a good idea to start with a class blog, then introduce individual blogs.  Apart from one or two students posting of their own accord, the others post because I remind them to, or ask them to.  I rate the value of blogging in the classroom simply because I see the value of students writing for an audience that comprises of not just me, the teacher.  Good blogging models are out there and I truly believe that sometimes kids learn way more from each other than they do from teachers.  I’d like my students to realise that there is a purpose to writing,  it can be a rewarding experience and it is validating to know that others are reading your writing and are interested in what you have to say.  So why isn’t it working?

Jeff Utecht’s presentation gave me some insight into why blogging isn’t yet sustained in our classroom. This is a practical presentation, full of sensible ideas, simple techniques and some really good “takeaways” thrown in as well.  So, what did I learn?

1. Blogging is a conversation - 2 way communication and you need to take it to this level.
2. Allow the conversation to take place.  Change the way your classroom is arranged if you have to - rearrange it so that the conversation can take place.
3. Make time.  If it’s an add-on, it won’t work.  Simple.  Make it the way we do things ’round here.
4. Guide the conversation, persuade the conversation, give suggestions, model to your students.  Find good blogs to read.

Jeff’s got a great wikispace set up too with all the links to some pretty clever teachers (Mark Ahlness, Scott Hossack, Clarence Fisher) out there who have sustained blogging going on in their classrooms.  I’ve realised that I have all the ingredients to achieve sustained blogging in the classroom, I just have to tweak things a little.  I’m glad that I’m on the right track and I now know what to do to allow sustained blogging to happen.

There’s so much more in this presentation but rather than regurgitate the whole of Jeff’s presentation - please go take a look/listen at it yourself.  I highly recommend it!

If you’ve not gotten into the K12 Online Conference yet, then you must.  The beauty of this conference is you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home!  And it’s free! Costs nothing more than your time!  And if you’re like me, and the kid’s need you, you can just pause and go back to it later. Or, if you think you missed something, you can go back and view it again.  Wicked!

Jeff The Thinking Stick Utecht’s latest posts, “I don’t want to integrate it, I want to embed it” and “Embedding the tool is only the first part” got me thinking - then I read all the comments (18 in total so far) and had to add the phrase “the way we do business here” from Will Richardson and the word “grafting” from Ric Murray to my thinking.

What’s going on in our classroom? Integrating? Embedding? Grafting? Or is it just the way we do business here? Honestly? I think most of the time is a bit of all four! Integrate means find a place where it fits - well that’s what I do when I discover a new web2.0 tool and I desperately want to share it with my students. Embed means to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic. Our wikispace is an essential part of our learning, it’s the “go to place” for everyone - we wouldn’t be room18 without our wikispace. Grafting means to join or unite closely, or “seamless- invisible” from Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. We use what ever tool, what ever technology helps us the most to learn, to teach others, to display our learning, to extend our learning or to share our learning. It’s intertwined, interlinked and intermingled and “it’s also the way we do business here.”

So what’s going on in your classroom?