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.

Students are really enjoying this exercise!

• Siblings have been enjoying commenting on sibling blogs (”You never tried octopus, how can you say you like all seafood?”)
• Some students find it frustrating not knowing who made a comment.
• Students are replying to comments on their “blogs” and inviting conversations.
• Students are discussing the pros and cons of keeping negative or nitpicking comments.
• Some conversations are between students who never knew they had a common passion.
• A bevy of intermediate students asked permission to head for the library to “check their blogs” during their lunch break!
• Favorites include pea soup, and root beer floats with mint chocolate chip ice-cream.

Conversations have opened up about family customs (Monday night milkshakes), ethnic foods, our diversity of taste, and body image. The body image discussion really impressed me, as one student complained that she couldn’t eat her favorite food because she was “too fat”–other students argued that she was lovely and should know that; that she shouldn’t worry about dieting if she usually made good food choices; that there were less-fat versions of her favorite; and one offered a recipe and shared that she was dieting, too.

Having the 5th grade girl and the 3rd grade boy and the 8th grade boy all learning that they share a passion for shrimp with cocktail sauce may not change their lives, but it has been a nice way to connect with each other. As we prepared to leave for Spring Break yesterday, I saw one student crushing a comment slip in a hug before replacing it on her “blog”! I am so glad we are helping these students feel the excitement of blogging in our small community, rather than online.

I could be talking about email, or mobile networking, or IM-ing, or online gaming, or blogging. Pick whichever.

It’s widely available to most of my students, and quite popular.
Therefore, most of my students will learn to use it–whether or not I show them.

What about the other students, who don’t have access? What about the students who do have access but don’t have tech-savvy parents hovering over them and teaching them online safety and savvy?

I devised a safe-chat game on paper, which I posted a little about earlier, to give all of the students in Grade 3 through 5 a chance to practice how to chat online, spot safety issues, and avoid some traps. That practice made me feel good about how the social skills of students transferred easily to the online simulation, so that my youngest and most inexperienced (no access at home) students were very successful in spotting and politely extricating themselves from conversations they should avoid.

I know that it’s good to anticipate, and practice, using any new skill–but I want to do more. I want to give these students lots of successful and confidence-building experiences. Especially the students without access at home. I don’t want those students to feel unprepared and disadvantaged in the online world of their peers. I am keeping my eye out for more “practice on paper” for this young age group. I’ve come across a one paper exercise that I think will transfer well to the students in the Intermediate and Middle School levels:

To provide a hands-on, interactive explanation of (mo)blogging, and the way that blogs can be used in education as powerful learning tools.

Mobile Learning » Workshop Activity: Paper Blogs

(mo) blogging refers to using a mobile device to post your blogs, I believe.

I’m going to try this on paper with the Intermediates, but I think I’ll be trying it in a word-processor with the Middle School level. I want the Middle School students to be thinking about how they compose visual space this week. If it works well, I may try and have the Intermediate students try it on the word processor, too, at a later date.

I will take advantage of the opportunity to have a conversation about passions and learning communities, on-line and in person, too!