Macworld+Edublogs

=Blog if You Love Learning: Weblogs in Education= [| Lucy Gray] and [|Judy Beaver], 1/16/2008, 3:30-6:30 pm Powerful teaching and learning tools for both students and teachers, blogs can be used for student reflection, parent communication, professional development, and much more. Come be inspired by best practices.

I. Getting Settled

 * Visit the Blog KWL of this wiki and add your thoughts to the chart.
 * Post a brief introduction in [|workshop blog]
 * Give Judy or Lucy your email address if you want to join the workshop blog.
 * Sign up for a [|Google account] if you do not have one.
 * Introductions

II. Mini-keynote: Blogging Basics
media type="custom" key="428601"


 * What is a blog?
 * Why would I want to use one in an educational setting?
 * Where can I find blogs to read?
 * Where can I create and publish a blog?
 * How can I keep track of my blog and the blogs of others?
 * What is RSS? Tags? Feeds?
 * Overview of Blogger features
 * Similarities and Differences Between Blogs and Wikis
 * Any other questions? Participants feel free to add them here:

III. Following Blogs - 30 minutes

 * Using [|Google Reader]
 * [|Get a Google account]. You can get an account without getting a Gmail account.
 * Importing an [|OPML] file of Lucy's recommended blog feeds
 * Download Lucy's OPML file from this wiki to your desktop ( control + click on this link; save to desktop): [[file:Macworldexpo.opml]]
 * Go to Settings in Google Reader.
 * Click on Import/Export.
 * Browse to the desktop and select Lucy's OPML file.
 * Select Open to import feeds into Google Reader.
 * Enjoy!

IV. Our Favorites - 15 minutes
Lucy and Judy will highlight a few of their favorites in each category.
 * Student blogs
 * Teacher blogs
 * Administrator or school blogs
 * Class or project-based blogs
 * Professional Development Blogs
 * Video blogs

V. Best Practices

 * Using a [|custom Google search engine], participants should work in pairs to unearth examples of exemplary blogs and post them to the [|workshop blog] along with a sentence or two describing their selections and why they chose these particular weblogs. Feel free to add these selections to the workshop wiki as well, but it is not required.
 * Post some ideas to [|our laundry list] for using blogs in educational settings.
 * Next, look over the examples and help develop a rubric using Inspiration for evaluating blogs.

VI. Blogging Tools

 * Blogging Tools
 * For Your Perusal: Feature Comparison Charts
 * [|Online Journalism Review's Blog Software Comparison Chart]
 * [|Pulsed: Blogger vs. Wordpress]
 * [|ITS Center for Instructional Technology]
 * Free Sources
 * [|Blogger] - Google's blogging service
 * [|Edublogs]
 * [|Class Blogmeister]
 * [|Tumblr]
 * [|Macworld Edublogger Sandbox]
 * Sources requiring purchase
 * [|Typepad]
 * Apple tools
 * [|iWeb]
 * [|OS X Server] and [|blogs]
 * Advanced Blogging Tools
 * Microblogging
 * [|Twitter]
 * [|Jaiku]
 * Wordpress
 * [|Moveable Type]


 * In small groups, explore iWeb, Blogger, Edublogs, and Tumblr. Report back to the group about the advantages and disadvantages of each here.

VII. Special Bonus Section: Blog Bling

 * [|Technorati Tags]
 * Bookmarklets
 * [|Micro Persuasion: Bookmarklets Every Blogger Should Have]
 * [|OnlyWire]
 * Gadgets/Widgets
 * [|Widgetbox]
 * [|50 Great Widgets for Your Blog]
 * Hit Counters & Maps
 * [|Statcounter]
 * [|Site Meter]
 * [|Google Analytics]
 * Blog Search Engines
 * [|Technorati]
 * [|Google Blog Search]
 * [|Icerocket]
 * [|Sphere].

VIV. Reflection and Creation

 * Choose an aforementioned tool and start developing your new blog with the help of workshop leaders.
 * Participants should take the [|CUE Survey] for workshop evaluation purposes.
 * One Thing Wrap-Up Discussion
 * Post one thing that you'll take home from this workshop the [|conference blog.]
 * Expand upon it in group discussion.

VI. Workshop Resources

 * [|Links in del.ico.us] Account: macworldedubloggers
 * If you are bookmarking useful links for the group, use the tag **macworldedubloggers**
 * Lucy's account: **elemenous**
 * Twitter account: [|mwedubloggers]
 * Lucy's twitter username: **elemenous**
 * Apple Learning Interchange Exhibits Using Blogs & Wikis
 * [|Atomic Learning's Blog Workshop]

VII. Recommended Reading/Viewing

 * [|Participatory Media Literacy]
 * [|Sign Me Up! The Elementary Email Solution: Linked Gmail Accounts]
 * [|Alec Courosa's video on creating student accounts in Google]
 * Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson
 * [|Jeff Felix: The Study on Blogging Educators is Complete!]
 * [|Rationale for Educational Blogging]