Blogs are becoming more and more part of education. We share our ideas, feeling free to express ourselves out of academic or school borders. Students paticipate actively in discussions, in programmes, sharing their ideas. One interesting idea is Kidblog. Kidblog.org, based in Minneapolis, MN, was founded in 2007. The Kidblog Development Team is committed to providing the most effective, efficient student-blogging tool available anywhere.
Kidblog's founder and lead developer has 18 years of combined web development and classroom teaching experience. This experience offers a perfect blend of programming and pedagogy. Kidblog meets the need for a safe and simple blogging platform suitable for elementary and middle school students.
Kidblog's advanced privacy features put safety first:
- Teachers have administrative control over all student blogs and student accounts.
- Your students' blogs are private by default - viewable only by classmates and the teacher.
- For "semi-public" blogs, set up guest (e.g. parent) accounts that require a password to view students' posts/comments.
- Comment privacy settings block unsolicited comments from outside sources.
- Kidblog does not collect any personal information from teachers or students.
Kidblog helps your students focus on what's important:
- No advertising of any kind.
- Simple login menus allow students to select their name from a list of students in the class, eliminating the need to memorize usernames.
- Clutter-free design means your students will spend less time fussing with widgets/options and more time publishing.
- Central blog directory and simple navigation links make it easy for students to find classmates' blogs.
Blog is a quite recent notion in education. It makes the the education more diverse.
ReplyDeleteTo start using a blog in the classroom a teacher should know how the blog is functioning. A solid understanding of the process is a key factor to start implementation of the blog in the class. All the instruction should be given to students before and while using a blog.
A blog can become a second home for students where they will feel comfortable to share ideas and participate in discussions.
Some students have better writing skills and with the help of the blog they can write their thoughts more clearly than tell the same in the classroom.
Students can complete class writing assignments, create portfolios, express their opinions on topics that were discussed in the class, write comments, tell what they think about assignments they did in the class and so on.
When the lesson is over, it doesn't mean that students don't learn any more. With the blogs their education continues constantly.
This is such a nice idea, I would love to try it with my kids.
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