Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Use Kidblog to Get Your Students Writing!

Kidblog Website 
There are many uses for blogging in the classroom.  
iPad App Link 
With kidblog teachers can create classroom sets of individual student blogs  and give students an audience to write for, as well as a handy tool to help meet new CCSS writing standards for example:      

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

I love websites that create app versions of their site.  Regardless of whether you have three computers and two iPads or one to one iPads in a classroom, students can post from anywhere.     

Setting up your class is easiest via the website.  On the kidblog website, teachers can moderate, edit, and/or delete posts and comments by students within their classes. Within settings, teachers are allowed to adjust who can read, comment, or are notified.  The teacher dashboard gives quick ability to moderate and view who and what was written.       

The kidblog app for both the iPad and iPod Touch allows students to log in and post their entries, upload video or photo projects, and comment on other students' posts.  Its a great way to allow students to share their projects that they have created on the iPad.  Here is a link that is readable to the public of a piccollage project we did in a recent training:  http://goo.gl/rAQXk

Working towards allowing blogs to be  public is a great way for students to share their writing with their parents and other family members, allowing for a larger audience.  It is also another platform for teaching about proper commenting skills, reflection, and internet safety.  If students are posting projects, it's also a tool for teaching about copyright rules and expectations.  A great resource for working on Digital Literacy and Citizenship in the classroom is Common Sense Media K-12 Curriculum 

If you've wanted your students to blog, this is a place to start.  It's a fun way to get students writing and sharing!

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