Setting up and using the blog for teaching and learning

Having developed your plan on how to use a blog in your classroom you now need to set up a blog and implement your plan. In this part of the course you will spend time in your school setting up and using a blog with your students. You will reflect on the ways in which the use of the technology has changed the learning and teaching experience of both students and teachers. At a practical level you will observe what the learners do with the blog and record your reflections.

Please note: Activity 10 and 11 in this section will be carried out in your school. You will be asked to report back in four weeks.

Activity 10 Setting up your classroom blog

Timing: Up to 1 hour in class during weeks four to seven of the course.

The objective of this course activity is to set up a classroom blog that meets the needs of a group of learners within your school.

Using your chosen blog tool, set up a blog. This will require you to:

  • give the blog a name
  • decide on controls to student access e.g. passwords
  • write the first post and upload any supporting material, images etc.

Activity 11 Using the blog with your students

Timing: Up to 5 hours in class during weeks four to seven of the course.

The objectives of this course activity are to:

  • use a blog with learners
  • reflect on what happens
  • evaluate against the criteria in your plan for learning intentions and impact.

Your task is to implement your plan with the group or groups you have identified and to reflect on and document your learning journey. As you do so, you should be mindful of your learning purpose or intended gains and how you plan to document and collect this evidence. You will need to have this to hand to reflect on for the next activity.

It is a good idea to maintain a learning journal [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] to help you record observations and reflections systematically. This can be done online using your personal blog in your shared activities, or other tools. Alternatively, simply use a notebook where you can collect observations down one side of a double page and your reflections on the other.

Planning to use a blog

Reflect, evaluate and share with others