K is for Kidblog
What is Kidblog?
Kidblog is a secure website that a teacher can create a classroom blog or set up a series of blogs for students. The teacher can customize colours, backgrounds, create blogs for students, and change other settings on the blog. Students sign in and are able to create blog posts, comment on each other's blogs, view the teacher blog, and insert videos and pictures. |
How do I use Kidblog?
My goal for this school year was to set up Kidblog with one class only. I decided to use it with my 7/8/9 social studies class because the students have been exposed to most of my technologies already having had me as a teacher for three years. Social studies also provides lots of opportunities for journal entries and personal reflection. I used to use written journals and I would collect the journals, mark them, and hand them back. Sometimes, the kids would show so much learning in their journals and I felt like it was a waste for no one else to read them! The advantage of a blog is that other students can read their peers' journals and comment on them as well. I give students a prompt of something we are working on and they write a 250 word journal entry responding to that question. Sometimes, I encourage them to insert pictures or links to websites. They post the blog with their ideas, and then they are required to comment on at least two other people's blogs. At first, I was finding that there wasn't a lot of traffic - they would do their two posts and then forget about them. Recently, I have started encouraging them to stop counting their posts and spend more time exploring. They need to return to their own blog and comment on the comments left by other students. It has been better lately, and not so constructed. I mark the blog only once per reporting period because I found that it was just too much marking and reading to look at every single post and every single comment. I still check the blogs as they are working on them, but I don't actually grade the blog until the end of term. I have a good rubric I have been using that looks at quality of posts, quantity of posts, quantity and quality of comments, added material, posting in a timely manner, and visual appeal of blog. The kids have learned more from formatively assessing peers' work compared to their own than they ever would have from my mark out of 10 or my comments on their written work.
My goal for this school year was to set up Kidblog with one class only. I decided to use it with my 7/8/9 social studies class because the students have been exposed to most of my technologies already having had me as a teacher for three years. Social studies also provides lots of opportunities for journal entries and personal reflection. I used to use written journals and I would collect the journals, mark them, and hand them back. Sometimes, the kids would show so much learning in their journals and I felt like it was a waste for no one else to read them! The advantage of a blog is that other students can read their peers' journals and comment on them as well. I give students a prompt of something we are working on and they write a 250 word journal entry responding to that question. Sometimes, I encourage them to insert pictures or links to websites. They post the blog with their ideas, and then they are required to comment on at least two other people's blogs. At first, I was finding that there wasn't a lot of traffic - they would do their two posts and then forget about them. Recently, I have started encouraging them to stop counting their posts and spend more time exploring. They need to return to their own blog and comment on the comments left by other students. It has been better lately, and not so constructed. I mark the blog only once per reporting period because I found that it was just too much marking and reading to look at every single post and every single comment. I still check the blogs as they are working on them, but I don't actually grade the blog until the end of term. I have a good rubric I have been using that looks at quality of posts, quantity of posts, quantity and quality of comments, added material, posting in a timely manner, and visual appeal of blog. The kids have learned more from formatively assessing peers' work compared to their own than they ever would have from my mark out of 10 or my comments on their written work.
Where can I find out more?
Go to www.kidblog.org to set up a teacher account and student accounts. You can also find more information about how the site can be utilized.
Go to www.kidblog.org to set up a teacher account and student accounts. You can also find more information about how the site can be utilized.