The SurRural Librarian

How-To

• Edublog Video Tutorials
• Commoncraft, Blogs in Plain English video
• Easy Web Fixes from NELA (just this past Monday!)
• Help for Blogs in the Classroom can be found at: Using Blogs to Promote Authentic Learning in the Classroom by Janni Black

Pam’s Tips for Using Blogs with Students

• Preview Drafts
• Brief, Conversational, Original
• Pseudonyms, Nom de Plume
• Engage in respectful dialogue
• Assignment is to comment on every DCF Book they read
• Fun time-filler for kids who finished early

Why To

• Rationale for Educational Blogging by Anne Davis
• National Educational Technology Standards from ISTE
• On 9/30/08 Congress passed, as part of S. 1492, an update to the Children’s Internet Protection Act which requires schools participating in the E-Rate program to educate students regarding appropriate behavior on social networking and chat room sites and about cyberbullying.
  More info from ISTE and here’s the actual bill

Where To

If you’re just starting out or have a project with an end date, I suggest trying one of these sites:

Free hosts for blogs: edublogs.org or wordpress.com

Tools

If you want more control and are ready for more of a challenge, download & install on your own: wordpress.org. Remember, you’ll have to do your own upgrades!

Use Feedburner to manage your feeds or embed your feed on your existing library website