VIEW and READ THE CANVAS MODULE: Complete the Canvas module before creating your blog. This means watching the documentary (in most modules), browsing all the articles, and reading the week’s blog instructions carefully. Each blog will be numbered from #1 to #10, and the required comments are also numbered #1-10 in Canvas.
INCLUDE MOST OF THE CANVAS MODULE CONTENT PLUS ONE ADDITIONAL SOURCE: Your blog must include a discussion of the documentary (if there is one in the week’s module), AND TWO articles in the Canvas module, AND ONE article you find on your own from a reputable, RECENT (published in one of the years of 2022, 2023, 2024). Reputable education sources can be found in Education Week, Edutopia, ChalkBeat, Teacher Magazine (from Australia), Kappa Delta Pi (KDP),Rethinking Schools, Teachers First, or other reputable education sources.
HAVE A MAIN IDEA: Decide on a main idea for your weekly blog post based on the critical issue of the week (the documentary, articles in the module, and the one article you located on your own). Think of this as a thesis for your blog post. Having a thesis or one main idea for the post will make it more interesting to read and help you organize the content better. DO NOT just summarize the documentary and the articles as that is BORING. Think of blogging as attempting to entertain your public audience of readers. Make US want to read your blog! You need to write a minimum of 350 words for text-based blogs.
MOSTLY TEXT BUT THREE BLOGS WILL BE VLOGS: Don’t fret it! Out of the 10 required blog posts this semester, I am asking three of them to be vlogs which is a video instead of a written blog. Some of you will love this because you prefer talking over writing and some of you will dread every minute of putting yourself on camera but VIDEO IS THE FUTURE! We will all benefit from seeing each other talk instead of just reading each others’ writing and it adds variety to our blogs. You can use any tool you want to create your vlog and here is a lot of options suggested by Edublogs in the post, “Step 9: Creating and Using Video”. My preference is always using Flip but you might have a different preference. The only thing I ask is that we see you on your vlog so don’t just use audio or don’t just create a presentation and narrate it for these weeks. We want to see you and hear you and don’t worry we all can’t stand the sound of our voices! You will add the video through a URL, not an embed code and not a file upload. Flip is ideal for this task because it is FREE as part of Microsoft, it has great filters/ features, and lastly every video will create a URL you can use in your blog post. The camera on Flip is so fun to use; the following is a link to how to use the Flip Camera – Learn About the Flip Camera. Your video should be at least 4 minutes in length (depending on how quickly you speak/ pauses in your speech/ technical challenges) but may need to be longer to include a discussion of all the required sources (documentary, 3 articles, and your own perspective on the topic). The best practice for videos is to write a rough script/ bullet points to help guide you before you record to make sure you cover the content and do not just ramble.
ADD AN IMAGE: Once you write it or create the video, find or create an image to supplement the content of your blog. Graphics help the content stick in our minds and it adds interest to your blog post. Find an image that is not copyrighted but instead allows public access. Read Step 7: Images, Copyright, and Creative Commons for further details. No, really! Click the link and read it to learn how to use images properly so that someday you can teach this to your students! It’s important to learn and teach your students good digital citizenship skills! (Feel free to make it fun and add a meme!)
CITE YOUR SOURCES: It is important to get in the habit of giving credit when credit is due. You will be writing your blog but you must demonstrate to me that you watched the documentary, read the articles, and found one additional article on your own and you do this by using APA Style in-text citations in the body of your blog and by adding a references list to the end of every blog post. I know this seems excessive to you but it’s important to cite your sources. The references list at the end of the blog should not be difficult because you can copy the source list from the Canvas module. All the sources used in the module are listed at the end of the page in APA style so you can literally copy and paste them into your blog. The hard part is citing them in-text/ in the body of your blog. When you refer to the documentary in the body of your blog, put the name of the director and the year of publication in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Do the same for the articles. Look at my sample blog as an example of this. If you don’t know APA Style, see the JET Library LibGuide for details.
WRITE AN INTERESTING TITLE: Try to capture your readers’ attention while also relaying to your audience the main idea of your week’s blog post. Think of something catchy, creative, inspiring, and/ or interesting as a title for your blog each week. Engage us and make us want to read your blog or watch your vlog!
ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE OF READERS: Blogging is different from writing an essay or a research paper! The tone should be more casual and you are welcome to express your personality. Although I require you to demonstrate to me that you have watched the documentary, read the articles, and found and read your own additional article, you should just summarize in long paragraphs. That is boring and no one wants to read a boring blog! Instead, follow these tips from Edublogs and PLEASE read “10 Tips For Making Your Blog Posts Easier to Read”. I mean it, seriously, read the article as you need to incorporate these tips to receive a good grade on your blog posts. Also, read the rubric in Canvas! Edublogs, the tool, has many features to add interest to your blog posts, and here is a great infographic to help you use the tools available – How-to-publish-a-blog-post-10-step-help-guide-vcm5i9-29gc8j7. Lastly, you can embed almost any other tool or project into your blog by using an embed code and this infographic serves as a how-to guide on embedding: How-to-embed-content-in-a-blog-post-or-page-Edublogs
COMMENTS ARE THE MAGIC: Writing your initial post is only one piece of the blogging process. Reading each others’ blogs and commenting on others’ blogs helps make the learning stick and allows you to see the critical issue from someone else’s perspective. It’s MAGICAL! You will be writing at least 10 comments this semester – at least one for each critical issue. I ask you to vary the blog you comment on so you read/ view a variety of perspectives. There is a rubric for comments in Canvas so you can see how you will be assessed. ALSO, it would add to the experience if you take the time to read the comments made on your blog and comment back to your classmates. Edublogs has an article, Step 4: Teach Quality Commenting Skills, on how to comment on others’ blogs. This is part of the Teacher Challenge: Blogging With Students course that I encourage you to complete to earn a certificate and badge. I did it and learned a lot!
