Classroom Technology Lesson: Weebly Blogging

Learning Outcomes

Students will answer

ethical questions or
remark critically about
content from the
classroom website.

Students will use Weebly

course website to blog
their answers.

Students will analyze their

peers remarks and reply
with respect and proper
netiquette.

Standards
Glenn Standards of Journalism
Standard 1: Reading for Information and Understanding:
The student accesses a variety of print and non-print sources
and extracts relevant information and concepts from them.
The student combines this new information with prior
knowledge.
Glenn Standards of Journalism
Standard 2: Reading for Critical Analysis and Evaluation:
The student develops a critical stance as to the accuracy,
relevance, quality and merit of a text and the ideas and
information that it conveys.

NETS-S
Communication and Collaboration: Students us digital
media and environments to communicate and work
collaboratively. . .
a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts,
or others employing a variety of digital environments
and media.
NETS-S
Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural,
and societal issues related to technology and practice
legal and ethical behavior.
d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

Rationale
Blogging is a prelude to teaching students how to talk with one another, intelligently converse, and engage in academic discourse. With
this in mind, I knew I wanted to add blogging to my list of tech skills that I teach. We all know that kids learn best when they do something
rather than just read or hear about it. Instead of long-winded lectures or awkward teacher-led discussions, I focused on blogging as a way
to more privately and safely create these discussions. Students were to blog outside of my class or at home, and there were netiquette
standards in place.
I chose Weebly as the blogging tool because I wanted consolidation. Since kids were already using my Weebly website for modular
learning and assignment turn-in, why not just add a blogging page for each mod. I am sure other blogging tools are more user-friendly,
such as Blogspot or Moodle, but my students proved resilient and confident in this form of expression.

Figure 1: This snapshot of the Journalism

1 website shows a typical blog posting
found in any of the 8 modules. Each
question was unique and specifically
tailored to themes relevant to the course
content, sometimes tangentially.

Figure 1

Analysis of Implementation
I gave much thought to the best way to implement blogging to a classroom full of 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. In the end, I used
food to lure them into total engagement. So as the kids snacked, I sat amongst them and asked simply if there were any bloggers in the
class. Two students raised their hands and began talking about their blogs and the experiences that they have had with the process. Next,
we covered a few key school policies concerning technology, followed by my three major blogging rules: No bullying, no totally agreeing
without exposition, and you must acknowledge the other persons point of view. We went on to role-play blogging as more snacks were
passed out, and then I unveiled the link on our course website that contained a practice blogging question. After facilitating the process of
posting and replying, I had the students blog on the site as a practice before doing it their modules for homework later in the week.
As evidenced by a whopping 52 comments on the first blog (see Figure 2 and 3 on the following page), I would conclude that my
pedagogy was successful. My relaxed community approach served to set the tone for various learners that this type of expression is not
overly-challenging nor is it complex in nature.

Summary of Significance
This blogging product illustrates that the students understood my intent, my instructions, and my purpose. This peak into their work is
only a small sampling of work that my students did at a level I could not have predicted. They were on their game and good to each other.
My pedagogy reflects that by being a heavy planner, I was able to see the need to invest in not just the process but the rules and concerns
as well. I am a technology expert. If I cannot convince students that I unequivocally know what Im talking about, then how can I lead them
down new paths with their confidence in me secure? Like I said, I an expert on what I do; otherwise, I would not try teaching it.

Lesson 1 Graphics (cont.)

Figure 2: This snapshot of the the prompt

from my introductory lesson shows an
example of the type of open-ended
question you should focus on in order to
generate expression. You cannot easily
debate a concrete question that is either
right or wrong.

Figure 2

Figure 3: This snapshot of the comments

screen is scrolled to the bottom of the
screen to show two important points of
interest. First, it shows a Reply button
that is at the end of each reply in the
thread. Secondly, it shows the input boxes
for submitting a unique response to the
thread.

Figure 3