BLOGGING

** What is blogging? A brief definition and description. ** Here is a video explanation of blogging: media type="custom" key="3620755" According to [|Blogger.com] , a blog can be "a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world." A blog can take many shapes and sizes and is unique to the person that creates it. All you need to begin blogging is an email address. **How can teachers use these tools to enhance their classrooms?**  Blogs can be used to create assignments, projects, discussions, and more. Blogging permits students to express themselves technologically just as they would on paper. It allows students to exercise and experiment with technology to create authentic works. It also lets them access their works on any computer with internet connection. Even when school is dismissed, if the students have questions, they can ask them on the blog to be answered by teacher and/or peer. What’s even more impressive about this is that parents can observe their child’s progress in school. Another environment blogging can be beneficial is in an English classroom by posting journals or essays on blogs. For a foreign language class, a teacher can post podcasts on the blog so the students can hear the right pronunciation and articulation of the language. Even for extracurricular activities, a coach can post the practice and game schedule on the blog for the players and parents to see. Essentially, a blog allows teachers, students and parents to keep continuous communication open around the clock! **Below are the designated icons for each of the online blogging tools: **   [|Twitter] is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read  <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;">other users status'. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">[|Wordpress] is an open source software originally designed for blogging. It continuously saves your writing, even before you are finished, so you do not lose your work. <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">

<span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Blogger] is a website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions and/or shared journals. <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> [|Edmodo] is a way for teachers and students to share notes, links and files. Teachers can send alerts, assignments and events to students. They also have the ability to post any private information to a public timeline and RSS feed. <span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;">[|Coveritlive]is used to display live commentary or lessons onto your webpage or blog. It is very similar to a podcast with pictures and videos, and is also referred to as a live blog. This is not a free service. <span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> Here is a video tutorial for [|Twitter]: <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;"> media type="custom" key="3649593" <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">Here is a video tutorial for [|Wordpress]: <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;"> media type="custom" key="3620833" <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> Here is a video tutorial for [|Blogger]: <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: center;">media type="google" key="-3708781289648559509&hl=en&fs=true" width="400" height="326"
 * Where can teachers go to learn how to use the tools mentioned? **

Here is a slide show about how to use Edmodo: media type="custom" key="3649927" The [|CoverItLive] website has several tutorial videos to help its users understand how to use the service. Click the link to access the tutorial videos. <span style="display: block; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">