Recent Changes

A link to my "Blogging in the Classroom" Pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/npmaven/blogging-in-the-classroom/
A link to my general "Blogging" Pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/npmaven/blogging/
On the Wiki Front...
And also not "classroom" related, but to share with participants in my 2013 "Blogs and Wikis" workshop:
A blog post showing demos of both PBWorks and Wikispaces (with links to each platform) -
http://www.boardlearning.org/2013/05/board-portals-two-do-it-yourself-wiki.html

Three user-friendly blogging platforms you may want to consider
Blogger (Google product)
Posterous (also a great space for online collaboration and groups)
Wordpress (for many, the gold standard of blog platforms)
An article offering recommendations on several blogging platforms

Resources Created:
2013 Class Blog Assignment
Buoyed by the research for my Boot Camp workshop, I piloted two blogging assignments in my University of Wyoming nonprofit courses. The first was the most timid of attempts, with voluntary student participation. The second was a classwide project that replaced a dysfunctional, wiki-based group assignment. On this page, I share an outline of the assignment and a few of the resources created to support it.
Introduce them to a widely-used social media platform
Assignment Structure:
of interest (with(and deadlines attached.attached).
{BlankSpreadsheet.jpg}
Students worked as two- or three-person teams to identify subtopics to cover (and fit as a somewhat cohesive unit). Peer reviewers assigned within each trio or duo.

in
Education
sharing knowledge.
FollowingFollowing are quick to pages I've set up within this
What is a blog?
Blogging in Education

Resources
Contact
A workshop postscript:
Lessons Learned, Resources Created: 2013 Class Blog Assignment

{BlogPostStyleSheet.docx}
Blog style sheet
Other Resources:
A link to the class blog - http://uwyonpmgt.blogspot.com/
A link to my "Blogging in the Classroom" Pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/npmaven/blogging-in-the-classroom/
A link to my general "Blogging" Pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/npmaven/blogging/

Learned, Resources Created:2013Created:
2013 Class Blog
Buoyed by the research for my Boot Camp workshop, I piloted two blogging assignments in my University of Wyoming nonprofit courses. The first was the most timid of attempts, with voluntary student participation. The second was a classwide project that replaced a dysfunctional, wiki-based group assignment. On this page, I share an outline of the assignment and a few of the resources created to support it.
Assignment Purposes:
Blog chat thread in LMS - Intended as a space for FAQs, examples, reiterating information shared, sharing of examples.
Created a blog tour video - showing how to access, write, save, etc. Saved in iTunesU.
video - showingshowing how to
Created blog subscription tutorial - to show how to subscribe to our RSS feeds.
Blog guidelines document - attempting to set some expectations, offer hints, etc., to get them started.

Lessons Learned, Resources Created:2013 Class Blog Assignment
Buoyed by the research for my Boot Camp workshop, I piloted two blogging assignments in my University of Wyoming nonprofit courses. The first was the most timid of attempts, with voluntary student participation. The second was a classwide project that replaced a dysfunctional, wiki-based group assignment. On this page, I share an outline of the assignment and a few of the resources created to support it.
Assignment Purposes:
Engage students in deeper individual research on a topic of interest
Create a "group" learning experience (with minimal "group" anxieties)
Share their research with others (in this assignment, a global audience)
Introduce them to a widely-used social media platform
Assignment Structure:
Students select topic of interest (with deadlines attached.
{BlankSpreadsheet.jpg}
Students worked as two- or three-person teams to identify subtopics to cover (and fit as a somewhat cohesive unit). Peer reviewers assigned within each trio or duo.
Proposals submitted to instructor for approval and advice
Drafts submitted to peer reviewer (cc instructor) for editing, corrections, questions, etc.
Peer reviewer (and instructor) provide feedback
Student author posts final version to blog platform, saves as draft. Instructor reviews one last time before publishing. Posts published across the week, to avoid overloading subscribers.
Support Provided:
Beyond the feedback in the process described above, the instructor provided a series of supportive tools and resources to address student questions, concerns, problems, etc. Among those supports were:
Blog chat thread in LMS - Intended as a space for FAQs, examples, reiterating information shared, sharing of examples.
Created a blog tour video - showing how to access, write, save, etc. Saved in iTunesU.
Created a Blogger stats video - showing how to track stats on their post (and the blog itself). Saved in iTunesU; also could go under blog tab.
Created blog subscription tutorial - to show how to subscribe to our RSS feeds.
Blog guidelines document - attempting to set some expectations, offer hints, etc., to get them started.
Blog style sheet - an attempt to keep things from getting ugly (e.g., funky type choices, colors) and define how to handle things like headings.
Multi-step process w/specific deadlines - to build in opportunities for feedback, quality check, peer interaction. Better support from me. Some semblance of "team" interaction. Chance to improve quality of final product.
Following are copies of two of those tools:
{BlogGuidelines.docx}
Blog assignment guidelines
{BlogPostStyleSheet.docx}
Blog style sheet