I’m in my 4th Thursday CUE session, joining Alice Mercer for her blogging presentation – and attempting to blog it live (connectivity has been pretty spotty in the Palm Springs Convention Center). Here’s the link to Alice’s presentation – http://tinyurl.com/b3eusc.

• Starting with slide show – Why Blog with Students?
• Showing great video – 42
• Starting discussion of what it means to write beyond an audience of one – the way we write in the real world.
• Heading into Alice’s blog from her elementary computer lab, looking at student response to prompt on neighborhood (high crime area of Sacramento). Check out the power of the threaded comment option for Edublogs.org.
• Tips on how to get started blogging with your students:
  1. Mind your manners. There’s “no yard monitor” on the Internet.
  2. Start with analog (like Silvia Tolisano’s example)
• Adding visuals (flickr.com is a great resource – but look for Creative Commons copyright information if you’re going live with a blog post). Using historical images? Add your own fair use for educators explanation.
• Moving on to a tour of moderating student comments.
• Participants are voicing concerns about how to structure posting and commenting. (My suggestion: provide sentence starters such as those on teacher Aman Dhanda’s site.

Great session for teachers thinking about blogging with their students. Great job, Alice