10 Comments so far

1.    Abby on March 20, 2007 12:40 am

   barb,
   just wanted to say your presentation today was very inspiring! I’m going to begin my exploration into blogging with the Guinn-Stewart baby blog. I’ll be sure to let you know when it’s up and running! In the meantime, I missed the end of your presentation to make it to the next. Was hoping to gain some clarity on what the differences between blogs and wikis are? Our school has recently been using wikis, but not blogs - they seem very similar. Or am I way off and have no clue what I’m talking about?

2.    Barbara on March 20, 2007 2:04 am

   Thanks, Abby! It was great having you in the session today…and I’m so glad to hear that you’re planning to try it out with your soon-to-be-babe. If you’re using a Mac, you may want to consider using iWeb to create your blog because there are some really cute baby-themed templates and since I imagine you’d want to share lots of photos, it integrates beautifully with iPhoto. Let me know when you’ve got it set up!

   On to your question about blogs vs. wikis…the major difference is that with a blog an individual or group of individuals control the posts and then the world-at-large is free to comment. Typically blogs are set up diary style with posts & comments. A wiki is a full site, created by a group or individual that later can be edited by ANYONE who views the site. (Unless you set up your wiki to limit this.) A wiki has pages, articles and discussions, all of which can be added to, edited or changed by users. Both fall under the heading of “Web 2.0″ or “Read/Write Web” tools, and both can be extremely powerful. I’d love to see how you’re using wikis at PBS!

   ~Barbara

3.    Azmi on March 20, 2007 2:25 am

   Barbara,
   Awesome presentation today. Wish they’d given you more time to explore and explain more on podcasting. Anyway our school use blogs for teachers to post homework and class activities. Since I’m a PE teacher I’ve kind of ignored it b’cos I never assign any HW or work for kids but your session open up a new avenue for me. I’m planning to use a blog to post our daily activities and hope the kids get motivated and parent know what’s going on in PE daily. Thanks again!

   Azmi

4.    barblcohen on March 20, 2007 4:00 am

   Azmi,

   You’re so welcome…I can’t wait to hear more about your P.E. blog. What a great idea!

   ~Barbara

5.    srigyan on March 20, 2007 4:55 am

   Hi Barbara,

   Well, just set up my blog site and downloaded the pdf of your presentation. Very inspiring! Don’t know how I’m going to use this yet, but you made it very clear that this is a very powerful tool.

   Thanks,
   Sri Gyan McCaughan
   Mount Madonna School
   Watsonville, CA

6.    Matt Spowart on March 20, 2007 1:37 pm

   Hi Barbara,

   I attended your presentation at CAIS yesterday - thanks. I teach 4th grade at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco.

   For me it was extremely timely because I just set up a website and a blog based on our class bridge unit for my classroom last week (I used IWeb and .Mac). However, the administration is cautioning me to work out protocols for the website before I make it public. It is currently password protected. It has some student pictures (no names, or identifying characteristics).

   Could you send me the terms of use or acceptable use policy that MCDS has and any other ideas you have about protocols for this kind of thing?

   Questions my administrator had about my blog is:
   Am I going to check spelling and grammar?
   How am I going to make sure all entries are appropriate (no hate comments)?
   To whom are you going to give the password? (just my students? all 4th grade students? All Brandeis students and parents?

   - currently the blog is password protected but on IWeb I don’t think there is a mechanism for me to check comments before they are posted (I can turn off the comment function - but then it wouldn’t really be a blog) Frankly I’d rather just instruct my kids on proper blog etiquette and then take down a comment (I can do that easily) if it’s not appropriate.

   I’d love and appreciate any suggestions you have here.

   Thanks, Matt
   mspowart@bhds.org

7.    Barbara on March 20, 2007 11:36 pm

   Matt,

   Thanks for your comments & EXCELLENT questions. I’ll do my best to answer everything, but hope others will chime in as well!

   As far as Acceptable Use Policies for blogs go, one resource I’ve found is through Bud The Teacher’s Blogging Wiki. He has sample parent letters and a few AUPs as well.

   I’ll try to add to this comment later, but I’ve gotta go,
   Barbara

8.    Matt Spowart on March 21, 2007 1:05 am

   Barbara,

   Thanks for the link - I looked at it - I will probably create something from what I read at that site. We are continuing to have a spirited internal conversation about blog protocols and preventing “cyber-bullying”.

   I think this is a good teachable moment for the kids to use this protected and supervised environment to teach proper use of blogs.

   Matt

9.    Lori Saltveit on March 22, 2007 5:35 pm

   Great, inspiring workshop. For about a year I’ve been contributing to other peoples blogs but have been wanting to explore blogging with my high school students - I’ve been given some incentive. Thanks!

10.    Bloggers in My World : Independent Thinking on October 29, 2007 1:30 pm

    [...] & Jon’s Pregnancy Blog: Abby, a friend and former colleague, attended my CAIS presentation last spring and decided to make her first blog about her pregnancy & birth [...]