Steele-Maley
Web 2.0 Foundations Blog Assignment
This semester you will be writing a blog for Web 2.0 Foundations
To begin with, let me say I have high expectations for your blog. I see it as a place for thoughtful reflection, good writing, creativity, and conversation.
We are not going to be the only students/class blogging publicly on the web. I’ve been doing this with my students since 2007 and there are many many teachers around the world who host class blogs.
- For some of the reasons “Why We’re Blogging”, click here.
Standards
3: PLEPLN (approx. 20%)
- Meets 21st Century Learning Expectation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Skills (NETS-S 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) (Common Core W7 9-12)
- Build a Personal Learning Network using Web 2.0 Tools and the Internet
- Collaborate with educational community to identify topics of interest and learning mentors.
Table of Contents
WHS Commenting for Blogs - Guidelines
Steps to Follow for Commenting
Final Thoughts: Appropriateness
Expectations
When I say my hopes for the blog are high, I mean that I want your blogs to be a space where you get to 'show off'. You are all great thinkers and I want that to be obvious to anyone around the web that finds their way to your blog. A blog is a public showcase for the learning you are doing in this unique research class. Considering that you are only going to have to write a blog post once every week, I expect you to put in a good amount of time thinking, writing, reviewing, revising, proofreading, and polishing your blog post, to produce something you'll be proud to have others on the world-wide-web read. Of course, your first blog post won't be the absolute best of your blogging career! I know this and my expectations for your first post won't be as high as they'll be for your last.
Good Writing:
I know that for some of you, writing is not your preferred form of communication. But I also know that you are writers whether you think of yourselves as such – you write for school, you text your friends, you micro–blog for Facebook and/or Twitter, and you email. All these are forms of writing! The writing you do for your blog is yet another form of communication through writing, and one that you are free to define: you establish the rules of topic, tone, style, etc., in keeping with good English-language composition (spelling, grammar, sentence-structure, etc. must be proper). Think of blogging as academic writing with twists the typical academic writing rules (try not to use personal pronouns like I/me/my yet images, video and other media are required). I think you should use language that comes easily to you, and you shouldn't have to consult a thesaurus while you're composing (unless you wish to). On the other hand, avoid unorthodox spelling like "nite", "thru", "pleez", etc. Imagine you're sending an email to a potential employer or university admissions person and write like that – familiar/informal, but respectful of good communication habits.
Here is an interesting writing style suggestion for blogs, written by a blogger: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-10-11-n47.html
Creativity:
I want you to feel empowered to be creative in your writing. There's no right style for blogging, just the kind you wish to use, in accordance with the standards I have laid out for the assignment. You should find your own 'voice' and be yourself in your writing.
Thoughtful Reflection:
The topics of your blog posts in general should be "reflection on your learning" (Readings and Media to Get You Thinking for the week or term, interests that you have that you want to study further, your SDP research process or PLEPLN). Reflection is an opportunity for you to step back and think about / evaluate. When you reflect, you're doing very high-order thinking, the kind we do when we self-assess. As for the topic of your reflection, you choose that. Here are some general ideas I have for topics:
- "What I've been studying / learning lately." - tell us about some topics you've researched and what you've learned. This could be about the big topics of projects, or about little pieces of a topic you discovered and that you found really interesting (HINT: Include links to your Evernote Notes on research or images of your Twitter interactions for research!
- "What I'm working on right now and what I hope it will be." - tell us about your current project and how it's shaping up. What are some things your finding and what form will your project take?
- "What I'm learning about myself as a learner." - tell us about how it's going for you being in a research-based class. Are you finding this is a good way for you to learn? What's easy? What's hard? What are some successful strategies you've followed? How do you think you can improve?
- Etc. - what other ideas do you have for a blog post? Feel free to take it where you wish (appropriate for the course and following the requirements for assessment.
Conversation:
We will all end up reading each other's blog posts in class, which will provoke interesting conversations. To be a blogger means to "put yourself out there", open to comments from anyone in the 'blogosphere', including both me and your classmates as well as others around the web. Expect to get comments on your blog! Periodically go back and check for comments and respond. Authors have an obligation to reply to commenters and you should write your blog posts with this expectation for conversation in mind. If you wish, you can ask questions of the reader, and certainly you can send the reader via hyperlinks to other places around the web to get ideas for a comment on your blog.
Requirements and Assessment:
- Blog posts have titles – be sure your titles are interesting, related to your post, etc.
- Blog posts are visual – ever noticed how an interesting web page has images? If your blog post is just a bunch of text, readers will be more likely to click away. Include some visual elements, like one or two images and a video, some quotes (Blogger has a cool "blockquote" feature), maybe a table, etc.
- Blog posts have hyperlinks – links are tickets out of your blog to interesting sites. A good post has a few of these.
- Citation/Credit to original authors – you're publishing to a public space and it is essential that you give credit where credit is due, both because you want to avoid plagiarism and because it's the right thing to do. If you paraphrase some one's thinking, credit them. If you use an image, credit the source.
- Length? - there's no required length, but a good reflection will be multi-paragraph for sure.
- Assessment – you won't be evaluated on what you think/write as much as you will be on the quality of your reflection. Is it obvious you put in some time thinking before you wrote?
- Suggested Weekly Blogging (Meet Standard)- Minimum of one post and one comment following the iLab Blog assignment. These posts may follow prompts given for the week or should be topical to your SDP.
- Suggested Weekly Blogging (Exceeding Standard)- In excess of one post and one comment following the iLab Blog assignment. These posts may follow prompts given for the week or should be topical to your SDP..
- Grading Rubric – here is the rubric I will adapt and use for Web 2.0 (from Univ. of Wisconsin): http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/blogrubric.html
How to post:
- Start by reflecting and writing. Do this in Google Docs or some other application that you can save or simply save your draft post in Tumblr/Blogger.
- Review the very important WHS Blogging Guidelines: Ensure you have conformed to all these guidelines.
- If you have any questions at all about this assignment, don't hesitate to ask me. Please don't wait until the last minute to ask questions! And of course, you can always ask me to review your post before you publish, if you'd like.
How to Comment:
Consider commenting as part of blogging - without comments, you’re just a writer with a silent audience and no conversation. Review the very important Commenting for Blogs Guidelines before you start commenting.
Why We’re Blogging
Here are just some of the reasons why we are blogging:
- Writing is the most important communication skill you can master. There is more writing going on in the 21st century than ever before, and you will need it no matter what you choose as a career and in your personal life.
- You’ll become more aware of yourself as a writer. You will create your own voice as a writer, and you’ll find your creative style by setting up your posts - both in the text, and visually.
- You’ll have an authentic voice. You need a way to express yourself and take ownership of your learning in your own words. Your blog will be a place you can tell the world your thoughts on education, and about your learning - both what is working and what you need to improve. Because you won’t have to conform the voice in your writing to a teacher’s standard, you can express yourself more authentically.
- You have a real audience. Your writing is no longer just for me but for the whole world. When you write about history, photography, science, maths you’ll find other teachers and specialists in these fields to comment on our posts - to critique, to commend, and to suggest other ideas/strategies. When your write about your research, you’ll get comments from classmates about their research that could be helpful, and from other researchers/teachers and students around the web.
- Writing for a real audience opens a dialogue (starts a conversation). Through your posts, you have direct communication with many readers, and opportunities to engage them in conversation. Blogging helps us write to each other, yes, but great blogging is like a conversation with questions and responses. You will engage in written dialogue on topics you care about.
- You teach each other. There will be many times you will demonstrate research strategies or ideas that your classmates haven’t considered, or you will correct misconceptions your classmates have about research or the course material. You’ll be teachers rather than just students in our classroom. Blogging allows you to continue the conversations outside our classroom walls.
- You are a global citizen, and you become a global contributor/collaborator. Hopefully, your posts will be read by other students/teachers/scholars around the world, and you’ll come to know about these places by comments from readers. As we network with others around the world, we’ll make contributions to global knowledge, and collaborate with others in their own learning.
- Sharing is a 21st century imperative. In a world where information is ubiquitous and knowledge is becoming more and more democratic, we have a responsibility to share what we know. We’re unique at WHS, and if we hide our learning behind walls, we’re being selfish. By ‘letting go’ of what you know and giving it away on the web, you’re adding to the collective knowledge of humankind.
- Our class will be more transparent. Too often teachers shut their doors to the world rather than sharing what students are learning. Our blog allows people to see inside our class.
Blogging Guidelines
As a student blogger, you are expected to follow these guidelines.
1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know.
Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see? Is there anything in my post that should be private?
2. Do not share personal information.
Ask yourself: Could someone find where I live based on this information?
3. Think before you post.
Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post? Is anyone harmed in any way by this post?
4. Know you are communicating with people all over the world.
Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how will they interpret my words?
5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing WHS.
Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to write this?
6. Know how to give constructive feedback.
Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this comment? Is my comment helpful, or just criticism?
7. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?
8. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling.
note: style for blogging is more familiar, conversational, narrative, etc.; less formal than academic writing, but you should still use good diction and grammar.
Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for grammar and spelling?
9. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping).
Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?
10. Anytime you use media from another source, properly cite the creator of the original work.
Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work? Can my reader tell who should get credit?
Basic Commenting Guidelines
IMPORTANT: Please read the separate WHS Commenting for Blogs Guidelines document.
As a blogger, you will be commenting on other people’s work regularly.
Good comments
- are always related to the content of the post;
- consider the author and the purpose of the post;
- are complimentary in some way;
- ask or answer a question;
- add meaningful information to the content topic;
- are constructively critical, and never hurtful;
- include personal connections to what the author wrote;
- follow the writing process.
- in the end, these too are a published piece of writing.
WHS Commenting for Blogs - Guidelines
Blogging is conversation.
For steps to follow when writing comments, go straight to this point in this document.
For steps to follow when writing Author Replies, go straight to this point in this document.
Being a good blogger is much more than just writing posts. Because blogging is a public medium that invites comments, authors are also beginners of, and contributors to ongoing public conversation.
Good comments
- are always related to the content of the post;
- consider the author and the purpose of the post;
- are complimentary in some way;
- ask or answer a question;
- add meaningful information to the content topic;
- are constructively critical, and never hurtful;
- include personal connections to what the author wrote;
- follow the writing process.
- in the end, these too are a published piece of writing.
NOT a Good Comment: “I like your blog!”, “Johnny (author) rocks!”, “History classes suck.”
Quality Comments are the Goal
You should write “quality comments” - both excellent feedback to the author about his/her writing, while also opening a conversation.
Feedback:
Comments are an opportunity for the author of the post to consider what he/she has written and to reflect and revise in future posts. Consider this graphic that shows the cycle of thinking and writing for the author of a blog post:
When you comment on another person’s post, you’re actually helping them improve as a thinker and writer. Therefore, your comments should be both relevant to the topic and meaningful - connect what the author has written to what you know or have experienced yourself.
Conversation:
A blog without comments is just a piece of writing. With comments, a blog becomes a dialogue with the writer. This is the beauty of blogging as a medium - books and articles do not allow for comments and are one-way communications, but a blog is an invitation to a conversation.
You should think of your comments as requests to the author for a response, or as invitations to the other commenters and the author for a group conversation. You can see how this works well on New York Times’s blogs for example, where readers leave some very good comments and the authors return to participate (for example, look at the comments and resulting conversation on this post “What Makes Free Will Free?” on the NY Times’s “The Stone Blog”: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/what-makes-free-will-free/).
Steps to Follow for Commenting
Follow these instructions to write quality comments. Initially, this will feel formulaic and may seem that way to a reader, but over time your commenting skills should evolve so that this is second-nature and your writing will flow easily.
1. Carefully and Thoughtfully read the blog post.
2. Reflect - what do you think of the post, and about the topic?
3. Begin your comment with a greeting: ex. "Hi Jimmy, …", "Thank you Bill, …", "Dear Jane, …", etc.
4. Compliment the author in some way - what did you like about the post?
5. Ask a question, or add meaningful information/content.
6. Close with your name: ex. “Sincerely, Josh.”, “Best wishes, Josh”, “Keep up the good blogging, Josh.”
7. Proofread your comment - you should have used good language/grammar. Ask yourself if the tone is correct, so the comment is understood in the way you meant it.
8. Ensure your comment does not reveal personal information.
9. Click submit!
Author Replies
Once you have authored an original blog post, it is important you return to / monitor the post for comments. Commenters deserve “author replies”.
When a person comments on your blog it is a compliment to you, because you have written a post someone found interesting and engaging! Moreover, understand the value of a quality comment: it will require you to think more deeply about what you’ve written and perhaps validate your positions or change your mind.
It is important for authors to “reply” to comments, if for no other reason than to thank readers. Most of the time though, it will be important to tell the reader more about the subject in response to his/her question, or to counter an argument the commenter has made.
As you did in your original post, keep the tone familiar and stay in the 'voice' that you used in your post. Try not to be confrontational, even if you’re feeling a little defensive about what has been written as a comment.
Elements of this document are taken from the excellent blogging guidelines at edublogger.com.
http://theedublogger.com/2010/01/05/week-1-create-a-class-blog/
Final Thoughts: Appropriateness
In this course, posting ‘appropriate’ content will mean that the material you add to your posts increases the value of your post for your readers, such as by providing a concrete illustration of a complex idea, providing further reading on your topic, etc. ‘Appropriate’ also means that the content is such that it would be acceptable for sharing in lab or in our community (WHS, Town, State). Blogs and Twitter in Web 2.0 foundations are not a forum for you to share content unrelated to the course (no matter how hilarious it might be) or content that is offensive or inappropriate. That does not mean that you cannot deal with sensitive topics; rather, it means that you approach these topics not for shock or humor value, but, using the kinds of academic analysis modeled in the course, by showcasing their value in illuminating the themes of the course. If you ever have a question about the appropriateness of a post, please contact Mr.S prior to posting that content to the blog.
Attributuion
The Web 2.0 Foundations Blog Assignment was adapted from the amazing work of Mike Gwaltney