Kids Like Blogs (Did you hear that teachers??)

From time to time I receive emails about cool new tools I should check out or requests to grant another author the opportunity write on my blog.  I enjoy those interactions (although still feel like this blog is my personal space to write and share -- which is why I've declined the guest blog posts).  But today I received a pretty special email that propelled me directly here to my blog to share with you.

When I speak with educators about transforming learning through technology, I hear all the reasons why we "can't" or why it's too "hard" to transform the way we have our students reach their learning objectives or standards.  But every now and then, we find an example of a "mover" who makes it happen.  A person driven from within by a passion for learning that is uninterrupted by all the hurdles that others stumble over. 

Today I was introduced to the Kids Like Blogs project, a product of Mr. Schwartz who teaches 4th and 5th grade in Oceanside, CA.  The concept sounds pretty simple: each child was set up with an individual blog, carefully and securely utilizing anonymity, on which s/he would write 90 words each day. These were kids who were not only reluctant to write but wouldn't write.  The kids quickly learned that writing for an authentic audience holds more extrinsic value when they began to track the number of hits and comments they received.  That extrinsic motivation triggered an intrinsic response -- and a new found love for writing.  And Mr. Schwartz, a blogger himself, kept his students' privacy and security a priority by approving each blog post and each comment before they appeared online.

Wrapped up in this success story is a close partnership with parents who are educated about the value of blogging and also give permission before a child can participate.  Now here's the part that really floored me.  Many of the students participating in the project come from homes where the parents only speak Spanish.  The children, English language learners, are showcasing their writing online and their literacy and self-confidence is soaring.  Why does that surprise me so?  Because this is yet another hurdle that I frequently hear cited for not using technology based projects.  The fact that Mr. Schwartz believes in, not only, his students but also the parents of his students and opens the door for them to demonstrate their potential is golden. 

Here are a couple of parent testimonials:

"Prior to entering Mr. Schwartz’s class, my son didn’t like to write.  It was
pulling teeth to simply get him to write a paragraph for his 3rd grade
class project.  When he joined Mr. Schwartz’s class in the fall, he was
informed that daily writing was part of his homework, and he started
becoming much more comfortable – but he’d still count every word and do
it at the last possible moment.  

Now that the blog is up and running, my son is able to access it at home,
and suddenly I have a little boy who’s “just doing the blog part” of his
homework as soon as he gets home from school, and who becomes more
comfortable with writing every day.  This comfort with writing and
presenting his work has extended to other areas, and I couldn’t be more
pleased.  My son is learning to think of his computer as a tool, not
just a toy, and is gaining skills that he will use throughout his life."

This example demonstrates so many different things but let's not miss the critical element of Schwartz's own participation in the blogging community.  Educators who blog need to be rewarded.  Education leaders need to incentivize participation in social media, as participation is the only way to truly comprehend the learning value of the tools that comprise the web 2.0 era.

Thank you, Mr. Schwartz, for sharing your terrific project with me!  Keep up the great work (same goes for your students and their parents).

Posterous: Easy Group Blogging

I realize posterous.com isn't exactly new but I'm new to it and just had to share my experiences.  Posterous.com is a blog site that allows you to create one (or more) blogs that are owned exclusively by you or that you may designate as a "group blog."  You identify who can contribute to your blog and those individuals can add a post to the blog simply by sending an email to your blog's unique email address.  Within minutes, the email is translated into a new blog post.

Better yet, attach an image and posterous embeds the image right into the post (same for videos).  Urls are turned into hyper links, except for YouTube urls which are actually converted into embedded videos.  It's really quite genius.  And for a teacher who's looking for a fast and easy solution to creating a group blog for a class (or several group blogs for student groups), it's a great solution.

I've created a group blog for the Mobile Learning Think Tank workshop at Pasadena City College next Thursday, December 9th.  It will be our "sandbox" for a back channel and sharing new ideas that sprout out of the workshop presentations.  I'm excited!  We selected the presentations today and they're great.  I'll share details soon.

Want to attend Mobile Learning Think Tank in Pasadena or virtually?  Click here to register.  It's free!

Animoto: Engaging and Motivating Students with Video

This semester, my online Art Appreciation students were required to keep their own blogs in our class Ning network (a closed social network to which only my enrolled students have access). I'll be posting survey results about Ning soon (stay tuned!) but I wanted to reflect on a strategy I employ for motivating students to submit blog posts on time, use creativity and be reflective in their writing. I teach five classes each semester (a regular full-time load at my community college) and two of my online classes currently utilize Ning. So I have about 65 students who keep blogs. It's been quite an endeavor to develop a strategy for effectively ensuring the blogs are done on time and the posts fulfill the criteria of the prompts I assign in each learning unit. Here is what I do: I grade the blogs thoroughly twice a semester (at weeks eight and sixteen). In between, I randomly visit and read the blogs. I leave comments and when I find a blog that is "behind" or missing a post or two I will leave a "Nudge" comment. I track the number of "Nudges" each student receives throughout each blog grading period. At the end, when I grade the blogs, each "Nudge" results in a five point deduction from the max blog score. I then grade for completeness and effectiveness of meeting the prompt criteria.

The second element of my blog grading strategy employs a little friendly competition and a fun reward at the end of the semester. Beginning around week 12, when the students are running out of gas, I ask each of them to evaluate their fellow students' blogs and identify one blog that excels in "blogging excellence." I leave the criteria somewhat subjective but I do ask them to consider 1) completeness 2) creativity and 3) quality of posts as general evaluative categories. I secretly tabulate the nominations and all students who receive at least three nominations are awarded the Masterpiece Blog Award and receive 10 extra credit points which, by the way, are prestigious points because they may be awarded to students even if they've already reached the max extra credit in the class.

This strategy seems to work well and last semester I even had a student create a special icon for her blog that said, "Vote For Me!" In previous semesters I simply created a text announcement with the Masterpiece Blog Winners. This semester I tried something a little different. I took screen shots from the winning blogs and created a video on Animoto (which, by the way, now offers free All Access passes to educators!!!). Check it out! This is a fun way to reward great work, encourage students to go above and beyond the required expectations and building online community.

Masterpiece Blog Award Winners from Michelle Pacansky-Brock on Vimeo.

Online Students - The Real Experts

I'm very excited to be attending the 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando from November 5-7, 2008. I have been honored with the request to participate in the pre-conference workshop on November 5th titled "Ask the Experts." This will be a panel event with presentations from last year's awards winners. My presentation will be 15-minutes in length.

I have been having a tough time framing my presentation. I want the presentation to be dynamic and convey a clear essence of what makes my online classes unique and worthy of last year's Excellence in Online Teaching Award. So, it occurred to me that I should pause and "ask the experts" directly. So, yesterday I sent out an email to all 105 of my current online students, the true experts, asking them to kindly reply with a brief description of what makes my class special or unique from other online classes. It's always interesting to ask for open-ended feedback from students like this. I learn so much.

So far I've received many responses. Common favorite aspects of my classes include VoiceThreads because "they make me feel like I'm really in a classroom" and for the web cam introductions and feedback I provide for my students. Seeing me speak to them promotes my presence in their learning experience which encourages them to participate and stay connected. Others note the benefits of hearing my voice through my audio announcements and podcasts. Students also appreciate having the option to read my lectures or listen to them or do both: "I can read and listen (which helps me learn the best)."

Ning is also a big hit this semester. I have created a Ning community for my Art Appreciation students to interact in (with required blog posts). One student shared, "the whole Ning approach is really fun and a good way of getting us to interact moreso than with any of my other 5 online classes I've taken/am taking. It makes the class feel more together, not as detached, yet a fun way of doing assignments opposed to discussion boards or just homework assignments." Also, "Ning has really helped me grasp the other students personalities." Ning seems to be a natural community builder and, personally, I love that it's closed to just those students who I invite. Much more secure than using Blogger, as I previously did for my students' blogs.

Much of this feedback is common to the results of recent surveys I have deployed and hearing the feedback is so important because it reassures me that I'm on the right track. But my reason for sharing this is because many students have also simply commented on some things that can't be conveyed through technology. Here are a few excerpts:

• "You care very much about the subject and your students and learning. You like to teach and share the knowledge."

• "You teach in a way that makes us think, that makes us view our environment differently and therefore also think about things differently."

• "The online tests are easy to understand how they work and is on materials we study...not trick questions."

• "You explain things clearly and thoroughly. Your assignments are consistent and easy to follow. Your interaction is top notch..."

• "...[I]t is your personal touch and enthusiasm that make the class so engaging and thus, effective."

Students' perceptions and overall impressions about their experiences are so important for instructor tap into. They've given me a fresh perspective on my class and I look forward to using their insights to frame my presentation.

A Real Mash Up - Blogs, Podcasts and Bear Poop?

Well, school is out for summer! While I'm enjoying teaching one online class this summer, I'm also taking time to dig into some educational podcasts and spend more time with my two young boys who continue to teach me new things about the differences between "digital immigrants" and "digital natives."

I've listened to several of David Warlick's podcast episodes that have connected my thought process with educators primarily on the east coast. I appreciate David's willingness to use podcasting to connect educators and share ideas about teaching in the context of web 2.0. It's fabulous to be on my treadmill AND at a conference session that occurred last winter. I've learned a lot and was especially floored by North Carolina's public school initiative for 21st Century Classrooms. Again I am inspired by the work of educators in K-12 to press the importance of educating our students for success in the 21st century.

Now on to my "mash up."

A couple of weeks ago, my family went camping in the beautiful Sierras. While admiring the beauty of the sunlight on the nearby lake, my seven year old son noticed an enormous pile of ... well, poop. We both stared at it and hypothesized that it was either left by a "ginormous" dog or a bear. I pointed out that we had seen many warnings about possible bear visits in our campground and that we would need to be sure to take necessary precautions after our evening barbeque. I was done with the hypothesizing. My son, however, couldn't let it go. He said, "Mommy, I want to know if it's bear poop. Go look it up on the internet." I explained that we didn't have a connection at our campsite (although I did have my laptop "just in case"). I then tilted my head and went into my "digital immigrant" auto rant..."You know, when I was a kid we didn't even have the internet." With a very concerned look my son replied, "But ... how did you know anything?"

This moment, this brilliant moment, brought a lot into focus for me. As I enjoy my summer months tapping into the blogs, podcasts and wikis created by my fellow educators I will also be listening to my children.

Oh, and thanks to Quill Gordon's blog, I'm quite certain it was bear poop.

Online Students' Thoughts about Blogs & Audio Announcements

I have always integrated technology into my teaching (every art historian, heck, without color slides there would be no art history!). However, this I offered my students an opportunity to create a blog as part of my online Art Appreciation class.

Web 2.0 technologies are begging educators to integrate them into their teaching, just as students are begging teachers to do the same. Many of our students are already using technologies like blogs and wikis in their daily lives so why not integrate them into class projects? Isn't it every teacher's dream to have students who are excited to complete their coursework? As I see it, using technology makes this a reality.

I posted earlier about my integration of blogs into my online Art Appreciation class. Many of my students have responded positively when asked if the blog has supported their learning, despite the fact that this was the first blogging experience for 89% of them. One student even told me, "It makes me want to do my work." Ah, music to my ears! This week, which marks the last week of our fall semester, I conducted a survey of my students and here is what they told me. 89% of my class indicated that the blog project "enhanced" their learning. 78% of students said it increased their "sense of community" in the class. 100% of students responded "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree" when asked if the blog "exposed them to different perspectives." When asked if the blog project "required critical thinking," 100% of students replied with either "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree."

So, let's summarize these findings. It appears that all of my students identify the blog project as requiring critical thinking and exposing them to new perspectives. These are the outcomes, from my perspective, of the discussion board in an online class. So, when asked to compare blogs to discussion boards, what do you think they said? 72% of respondents said that a blog is a "more effective discussion tool" than discussion boards.

The second new element I added to my online Art Appreciation class this semester was regular, weekly audio announcements. In previous semesters, I posted a text-based announcement that summarized the previous week and included a general preview of the new content and any other related course topics. This year I recorded a 2-4 minute announcement and posted it for my students in an .mp3 file and also included a transcript. This way students had a choice to listen to it or read it (and, of course, this option made the announcement accessible to those who do not have the luxury of a choice). Here's what my survey revealed. When asked if they listened to the audio or read the transcript, 100% of the students said they listened to the audio. Keep in mind, they probably could have read the announcement in much less time than it takes to listen to it! I also asked my students if they agreed with this statement: "The use of audio for announcements, instead of text, increased the sense of my instructor's presence in my learning experience" and 94.4% of students said "yes."

Here are a couple of excerpts from the survey:

I'm taking all online classes this semester, and I can say that by far I feel like I've been better connected to my classmates through the use of the blogs, and I feel more connected to the teacher because of the use of the audio lectures. I don't know what it is, but just hearing someones voice helps me to feel much more involved in the lecture.

I think when a professor tries new, innovative, state of the art type ways to learn, that encourages us students because we see that the professor is trying all ways they can to provide us many ways to learn. To me, honestly, it shows dedication and that a professor really wants us to learn the subject.

Finally, I am often asked how my older students respond to using emerging technologies. While I can't speak for all of them, I did check in with one of my return students and asked her to send me her end of the semester thoughts about this topic. She told me,

I started this class with the mind set it would be liked my other online classes. To my surprise it was riddled with all kinds of new technology that I heard of but never put into practice. I had no idea what blogging would entail..Even posting photographs seemed a bit challenging. I almost quit the class. I am so glad that I hung in there. The blogs was a creative experience and so much better than the discussion board. The voicethread made it seem like you were actually in class with other students. ... No matter what the challenge was I found a way to complete the task at hand. I am 50 years old and have a full time job, so it was not easy, but I found it a self esteem building learning experience.


It sounds weird, but I really felt more involved in this class than on campus classes. With on campus classes, it's easy to feel hidden out of the attention of the teacher. Taking classes online, despite the fact that I never see the teacher, I strangely felt a strong connection to the instructor. I never have really been able to see other students work in on campus classes... that definately seemed to make the class more personal.

So, what are your thoughts about these findings? I'd love to hear some feedback!

A Blogging Good Time

It's now about three weeks into the semester and my online Art Appreciation class is well into creating their ArtBlogs. This is the first semester I've used blogging as a learning tool and I have to say, I'm pretty excited about what I'm seeing. Moving away from the dry and often redundancies of Blackboard's discussion group is allowing me to get to know my students on a new level, the weekly posts give them opportunities to reflect on their learning and ask specific questions, the images on the sites add personality and character to their thoughts, and the comments left by other students help develop a sense of community. Can this get better? I'm getting convinced very quickly that blogging has tremendous learning potential and should really be explored by more educators. Students, if you're reading, what do you think?