Lessons Learned: Implementing a blog in a classroom

Blogs are easy and fun to create and use. That's the good news. Why, then, are blogs not-so-easily implemented? The answer will sound familiar: a new technology, however exciting or useful, will only start living and breathing, if people use it. Technology is as useful as people make it. In other words, if no one is using a blog it has no function or purpose. That may seem simple, but failing technology is a recurring theme in Education. I just finished an internship in an urban K-5 school, where I watched computers collect dust in every classroom.
One lunch-time I heard a teacher voice frustration about the lack of response she was getting from her students. She posted each Monday a "Question of the Week" that students were to research and answer. Only 3 out of 27 kids were turning in an answer. I thought a blog might be an inspiring tool; the kids could read the weekly post and submit answers online. If the teacher moderated the submissions, she could published them on Sunday or Monday morning. Students could view and submit to the site from anywhere they had an internet connection and, with edublogs.org I could password protect student work. The teacher was very receptive to the concept and the tool, so I created it. And a few students got excited - you guessed it - the same students who were already submitting paper responses. The blog never took off.
Here are some insights into my recent experience and notes to myself on what I would do differently next time. Again, this won't sound new to those of you who have tried to introduce new technology in a classroom or any other setting, but there's nothing like experience to hit these concepts home!
Do a short "How to Blog" workshop for all staff
Be sure to have coffee, tea and cookies (as always) and invite staff to watch blogging in action. After a short presentation on the basics, give them a chance to try it. I wish I'd made time at the start of the year to do a Blogging workshop for all staff. After the busy start of school and parent-teacher conferences, the holidays were upon us. I plan on returning to the school to do a workshop in January, but it would have been much more effective to introduce Blogging to staff, and let projects grow organically, stemming from their interest. Doing a workshop for everyone gives staff a common base knowledge. Then they can learn from each other's blogging experiences. This is a way to get you, the librarian, out of the drivers seat and into the role of consultant.
Have the Teacher Create the Blog
I created the blog and then presented it to the teacher. If we had created it together (it only takes 5 minutes tops) sitting side-by-side, then we would have been equal partners from the beginning. As it turned out, I seemed to be the one driving the project, and, as the librarian, that didn't make sense. She's the classroom teacher, and if the tool is to be used by her students, she should be using it from the start. Plus, when she saw the new (and beautiful) blog I created, she was automatically intimidated. After that, I couldn't get her to sit down with me so I could show her how easy it was to edit and use the blog.
Involve Parents
After you've helped a teacher create a blog, it's paramount to send a letter home to parents introducing the blog: it's purpose, role in the classroom community, and expectations for student involvement (see Safety First for more details). This extends the community and creates a school-home connection. If you introduce it well, parents will just love seeing their child's work published!
Help the Kids - a lot
Introduce blogging in stages. First, just show them the site and put information on it for them to view only. Bookmark the blog in the classroom and the library for easy access. Then, show them how "comment" and and submit their work. In a K-5 environment (and perhaps Middle School-ers too at first), be sure to have students first write down what they will eventually type. It's also a good idea to make the blog optional at first (students can submit by paper or by publishing a blog comment). If students seem motivated by seeing their work published online for all in their community to see, then their interest will be more authentic. That intrinsic motivation is what will keep the blog going, and the online community has a chance to flourish. As the librarian, it's important to support the kids blogging efforts when you can - during recess or before/after school. Just be sure to make yourself known as a resource to both the teacher and the students.

I look forward to a time when I can blog again with kids. I got a taste, and I'm hooked :)
The effort is well worth it, so keep blogging!

Librarians who blog

Another great way to search for library and information science blogs by individuals:
http://www.liszen.com/

DOPA - So long until 2007?

It's been longer than I realized since I last posted, but mid-terms are starting to wrap-up at last and I'm starting to catch my breath. Now for an update on DOPA. When we last left things, the House had passed a version of their bill over the summer, but the Senate hadn't yet acted. According to the ALA Washington office, Congress has been occupied with the elections and after the elections there are no plans to consider DOPA in this session. Thus, the existing DOPA bill would expire at the end of the session. This issue may resurface in 2007, but in the meantime, it doesn't look like DOPA is going anywhere.

News coverage on blogs in the classroom - it's GOOD news!

While we were at the WLMA conference on Saturday (10/14), the Seattle Times ran an article entitled, "Teachers are reaching out to students with a new class of blogs." The story references a classroom of 3rd graders in Seattle who are blogging, and then goes on to describe the "boom" in blogging and how blogs are being used in classrooms. How timely!

What are other teacher-librarians blogging about?

If you want to find other blogs from teacher-librarians, or librarians in any field for that matter, you might want to try these searching tools:

Google's blog search
Technorati
(Technorati says that it currently tracks over 57 million blogs. You can search for terms in posts, tags and the Technorati directory.)

Another possibility is to find a blog you like, and just check out who it is that they've linked to on their blog. I usually find that's the easiest way for me to get started. In fact, check out some of the blogs in the links section on this blog and see where they take you....

How many blogs are created each day?

As mentioned in our presentation, the rate at which new blogs are being created each day is estimated to be 175,000. Some of those blogs are automatically generated and are essentially spam right from the start. And of course not all of those blogs that are created by even the well-intentioned will be maintained over the long-term. For the source of this information and to find other interesting facts and charts about blogs all throughout the virtual realm, check out what David Sifry, CEO and founder of Technorati has to say in his State of the Blogosphere, August 2006.

WLMA 2006 conference wrap-up

Hi everyone! Jill here :) Wow. I am still on an emotional high at the conclusion of the WLMA 2006 conference. Sara and I both made our first appearance as WLMA presenters and I know I speak for both of us when I say, "Thank you!" To all of you who took the time to come listen to us, and to share your ideas and questions with us, thank you for giving us even more great ideas to think about.

Sara Seely and Jill Fairlee Kobayashi

Many of you had questions that I said I would address on the blog and I will. As we said, blogging is fast and easy; it's the process of finding the answers and learning new things that may take a little time as I work my way through the list. But I will get to all of your amazing questions in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Please comment on what you see - let us know what you agree and disagree with, and let us know what questions you have. Also, feel free to send me an email. Remember - blogging is interactive so even though our conference session has concluded within the physical confines of the conference space in SeaTac, our dialogue can continue out here in the virtual world!

Look, We're blogging, again!

Here we are at WLMA!!!