Title: Paper Blogs April 28, 2007
By: Sue Rockwood, inspired by Leonard Low’s Workshop activity for teachers, and blogged about by me here.
Concept: Creating a small, paper blogging community gives students a chance to understand “blogging” and safely practice having an “online persona.”
Grade Level: Intermediate to Middle School
Objective: To help students understand the mechanics of blogging and commenting on blogs, discuss appropriate uses for blogs, and practice safe blogging and dealing with trolls.
Materials:
▸ Bulletin Board or posting space.
▸ A selection of colorful paper, Post-it notes, pens and markers.
▸ Stapler, tape, or push pins for posting.

Anticipatory Set: Post the word “Blog” in the middle of the posting space, with the letter B covered by a Post-it. Ask the students to tell you what definitions they know for the word “log.” Responses may include “a tree chunk” “Captain’s log” and “Ship’s log.” Guide the conversation to Ship’s log, and ask/share about it being a record of the daily events on a ship. Point out that, often, it was the official record of a trip: of marriages performed by the Captain, of deaths and burials at sea, of births, and for accounting for the cargo and monies handled. Point out that entries are organized by time, but stress that a log is NOT a personal journal or diary. Tell the students they are going to have a chance to practice on the posting space what many people are doing online, and uncover the “B” from the word blog.

Teaching Sequence:
▸ Safety reminder. Remind students that online spaces are not private spaces, and they should follow our safety guidelines. Repeat that this is public, and not a diary (although some people have unwisely acted otherwise).
▸ Explain that Web-log = blog and that your paper blog space will work much like an online one.
▸ Ask students to raise their hands if they share your “passion” about something obscure (like knitting baby booties). Ask them if they think you’ll find anyone at school that shares the same interest. Tell them that blogs are a way to use the WWW to connect to others who share a passion/interest, and that on our school “posting space” our community will share about our passions for favorite foods or beverages, since we all have them!
▸ Have students come to your “Blogspot”– a place where You provide them with a blog page and easy ways to customize it. Your “Blogspot” will have the selection of colorful paper and pens.
▸ Tell students to name their blog safely, and for this first exercise pick a favorite (not necessarily the favorite) food. Have the students describe their food or beverage, tell something about it that makes us get hungry for it. Have students include a drawing of it, to catch our attention so we’ll read their blog.
▸ As students finish their first “post” collect them on a central table and then give each student three Post-it notes and explain that you want them to read three other people’s blogs and post “comments” by sticking Post-it notes with their reactions on to them.
▸ Reassure “bloggers” that, just like with online blogs, the person who owns the blog will get a chance to review and decide whether they want to keep any comments. When everyone has posted their comments, have the blog owners come get their blogs with comments and review whether they want to keep them. (This can lead to good discussions about “interesting” controversies, trolls, and whether to allow anonymous comments).
▸ As they are ready, staple/post the blogs with comments on the posting space. Have a selection of pens and post it notes nearby, inviting passersby to “post comments on our blogs.” Remind students that they can still remove any comments they don’t like, and that they can stop in and check their “blogs” during free time.
▸ Have other classes blog, too, and get people to comment!

Assessment: Check blogs and comments for appropriateness. After this set of blogs has been posted for a week or two, have students put up new “posts” on their blogs (you may have to clear off the old ones to make room). Let students post about any interest they would like to–and check again for appropriateness. Music, summer vacation activities, and pets were favorite second subjects.

Extensions: Consider having a “troll” make an inappropriate comment (obviously, have the student the troll attacks part of the setup, I had a middle schooler post a comment on his own blog) and leading a discussion on how to react (research recommended responses to “trolls” and cyberbullying–another whole lesson or two! Talk about controversy and comment control, whether or not to insist people sign their comments).

Variations: Have classes post comments on the blogs of students in a different class or age group.

Privilege is like that–it’s easy to assume everyone else gets the same courteous treatment from the bankers/employers/schoolteachers in their lives that we get, until someone helps us to see the different treatment that still does happen to others whose group identity is different.

I began to understand how easy it is to overlook my own privileges when, in 9th grade, I interviewed a local community leader for a report on civil unrest and learned that there were no pharmacies in his end of town, because bankers weren’t willing to back a business in that neighborhood. That community leader helped me look at something I’d taken for granted (people willing to invest in my community) from the point of view of those less privileged.

Looking at my own situation from someone else’s point of view, and looking at someone else’s situation from their point of view, are not easy things to do–without help. I believe it is a very necessary thing, however, if we are to have social justice in this world. It helps me to be a better communicator to know my audience. It helps me be more effective as an educator. It helps me to know where I need to become an activist, a cheerleader, a philanthropist, a supplicant.

So, I would like to thank those people who have shared their point of view with me lately:

The concerned educators and other professionals forming learning communities (a la social networks at ning.com) around stopping cyberbullying and around developing our teaching skills and tools for the web 2.0 world.

The teachers and administrators at the non-profit where I teach. The Board members and Quakers who share their principles for peace, education, and seeing “that of God” in everyone–especially each and every child.

My husband and children who understand that teaching well means working many hours outside of the school day.

Conversations have been about access and the digital divide, filtering (I am grateful that I CAN TURN OFF THE WEB FILTER — Many of my colleagues can’t), school policies, physical location. We’ve been talking about brain format. We’ve been talking about the freedom to teach, and to choose our own assessments to help us, in a private school setting.

My husband designed this bumper sticker slogan. I’d like us all to be able to declare it:

It really is quite a privilege.

www.scottmcleod.net – Cyberbullying

With all that good stuff getting added to the net, I need some time to process and research. But I also want to add to the discussion’s visibility, since that is an important way to help stop cyberbullying!

I teach about cyberbullying, safe and civil behavior, and general groundrules. I enjoy those discussions with my students, but today’s discussion has me thinking about what else I can do. I have come up with two things (maybe three):

1. Post to raise awareness.

If I could figure out how to get one of Scott’s badges in my sidebar with this edublog theme it would be there. The only sidebar widgets available don’t have an option for inserting an image! But I can add a cyber-bullying awareness message to my rotating messages in my personal email tag line, and I can suggest that others use a badge.

2. Make my expectations for civil discourse on my blog explicit.

I really enjoyed Beth Kanter’s suggestion, on a forum discussion at the Stop Cyberbullying ning site that we might think about posting ratings for our sites much the way movies are rated.

Here’s the possible third thing: I will join the discussion over at the ning site, which has already begun a wonderful collection of resources, including videos. My “to-do” list is growing…