Chapter 2 Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice by Will Richardson

• A weblog is an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection (p. 17)
• They are comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated 9p.17)
• Blogs engage readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and to respond. They demand interaction (p. 18)
• 2 new blogs are created every second! (p. 19)
• Bogging is a genre that engages students and adults in a process of thinking in words, not simply an accounting of the day's events or feelings (p. 19)
• Blogs can: promote critical and analytical thinnking, creative, intuitive and associational thinking, analogical thinking, be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information, combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction (p. 20)

HOW BLOGS ARE USED IN SCHOOLS:

• Class Portal: communicates information about the class and archives course materials (p. 21)
• Online Filing Cabinet: students can archive their work, they can organize their work, they can share their work (p. 22)
• E-Portfolio: Students collect what represents their best work, then they reflect on these choices, finally they publish the results for others to see (p.23)
• Collaborative Space: create space where students can collaborate with each other 9p. 24)
• Knowledge Management and Articulation: communicating internally through school committess- archive minutes, share links...(p. 25)
• School Website (p. 25)

THE PEDAGOGY OF WEBLOGS (pp.26-28)

• Weblogs are a constructivist tool for learning
• Weblogs expand the walls of the classroom
• Blogs archive the learning that teachers and students do, facilitating all sorts of reflection and metacognitive analysis.
• Weblog is a democratic tool that supports different learning styles
• The use of weblogs can enhance the development of expertise in a particular subject
• Blogs can teach students the new literacies they will need to function in an ever expanding information society

A NEW WRITING GENRE

• "Connective writing" a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, demands clairty and cogency in its construction, is done for a wide audience and links to the sources of the ideas expressed (p, 28)

SCAFFOLDING BLOGGING (pp. 31-32)

1. Students find interesting sites of information
2. Deconstruct the design of the site
3. Write about what more they would like to see
4. Bring primary sources (authors, scientists, politicians) into the classroom through the blog so students can ask questions and reflect on the answers.

BLOGGING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

• http://tinyurl.com/2v4862 AP Calculus
• http://tinyurl.com/63zbl9 Extreme Biology
• http://tinyurl.com/5lyr59 The Write Weblog

BLOGS AS RESOURCES (pp.36-37)

• Reliability of Weblogs
• find out as much as you can about the author or the Weblog
• Find out what reputation the blogger has among his peers
• Look at the"blogroll" or list of blogs that the blogger links to