Group+D+4-C-1

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“A blog” is short for “Web log.” A blog is a site where frequent, short posts are published. Many blogs are basically online journals of individuals, but others focus on specific topics such as politics, education, or business. Blogs usually include numerous links to other sources. Blogs typically include places where others can comment on individual posts as well.” (Valenti 2010.) “Over 60 million Weblogs have been created, and two new ones are created every second of the day.” Blogging has become a mainstay in the technology world. It is also one of the earliest forms of Web 2.0 and the Read/Write/Web concept. “Depending on the focus, Weblogs in the classroom have the potential to effect student learning in many positive ways. Blogging can teach critical reading and writing skills, and it can lead to greater information management skills. It can help students become much more media and information literate by clarifying the choices they make about the content they write about. It can teach them about how networks function--both human and computer--and it can teach the essential skill of collaboration.” (Richardson, 2010.) There are so many positive aspects to having  students working with weblogs. There has been an argument made that today’s generation of students don't read. This is simply not true. They may not be reading books, but they are reading things like weblogs. It is often over looked how much literacy happens on the web. =====

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**Sources:** Richardson, Will. (2010) Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms /Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin. Valenti,Sherry. "Building online Collabo ra tive Environments: Read/Write/Web" PLS 5 June, 2010.=====

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This is a perfect example of how an AP Government Site uses a weblog to communicate not only with their students but with the weblog community. These two teachers update this site Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They change the page according to what is current in the beltway or needed for the AP course. This a key component to a good weblo g /blog. Teachers need to make sure that for the blog to be effective, teachers must maintain the blog with up to date information. Chad=====

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This website has video blogging opportunities with events and concerns on a worldwide basis. This would be ideal for any Social Studies class that studies international affairs, connection to Amnesty International or any other NGO programs, World Cultures, or any point in time where the class may study such events to draw connections and correlate how the United States is involved. You can choose the event or focus topic by region in the world in which they provide a number of video clips that corresponds with a written summary. Once a student views the video blogging of their choice, they then have the opportunity to subscribe to an RSS feed of this website to see any new updates as well as add their own input and reactions to the video of their choice. There is a lot of positive impacts that classrooms can utilize with their students that captures visuals, blogging communications, and areas to help them improve on collecting and articulating their thoughts on any given topic! Holly Liebl=====

**DANGERS OF BLOGGING IN HIGH SCHOOL**
[|First Amendment & the H.S. Blog] The trend in high schools, today, is becoming more draconian towards students' blog posts. Students are increasingly unaware of potential consequences that await them in their future if they post inappropriate photos and text about themselves. ABC News highlights the dangers of blogging for high school aged students. Mary-Ellen


 * TEACHER SITES THAT SUPPORT BLOGGING IN THE CLASSROOM**

[] This site is a wiki space that is set up to help teachers blog in their classrooms. It has everything from how to set up a blog to links of examples of good blogs beinig used. This is an excellent link for any teacher wanting to learn how to get this going in their classrooms. Chad

[] Blogging can foster an envrionment were students can learn to think for themselves. I have listed here another teacher example of how blogs can be used in a classroom. Teachers need to model the behavioir of good teachers and then apply those behaviors. Chad

The following constitutes a list of interesting wiki-based applications and project that I discover while searching on the web. Interestingly, there were no sites that I discovered with particularly History-focused wikis. Of the entire list, number four was the most comprehensive in so far as having broad topics was concerned.
 * Community College Level Socisl Sciences Wikis and Wiki-based Projects**

[] This is a really interesting site, in that it is the history of the college as a wiki, so students can revise and update as that history grows.

[] An example of an economics wiki for College level students.

[] This is an interesting source by the originator of the above to serve as a supplement.

[] This includes a fairly thorough list of wikis for various social science topics. The only downside is that it was last updated two years ago.

[] I include this as an interesting idea for the application, though I am not sure what to make of it. Jim

[|FUTURE OF BLOGGING?] While many teachers and students are using blogging successfully, there are signs that blogging is giving way to other Web2.0 applications. Wikis, Social Networking sites, Games and Simulations, etc. are competing for student interest and their time. So what is the future of blogging in high school and onwards? Please join our discussion page and post your thoughts. Chad, Holly, Mary-Ellen, Jim
 * WILL BLOGS PROLIFERATE OR STAGNATE?**

Summary and Additional Resources Our group investigated the potentials and dangers of blogging in the secondary and higher levels of education. One of the areas in which there has been a great deal of controversy recently has been the limits of free speech in schools. An interesting blog pertaining to First Amendment rights and blogging in High Schools can be found at: []. The views of the ACLU can be found at []. Regarding support for teachers who want to add blogging to their technical repertoire, Chad include this very fine source, [] .Another interesting site along these lines is []. At the end of our first page, there was the tag that Blogs may themselves be superseded by yet more innovating web 2.0 tools. A direct search on this topic yields little further information, so it is up to the current writer to theorize. It is likely that applications such as facebook and twitter will, to some extent, supplant blogs. At the same time, these different applications are by no means mutually exclusive. Twitter can be great for giving short answers and opinions on various questions. By the same token, blogging is useful for more in depth responses that require more than 140 characters. Along the same lines, face book may be an excellent tool for focusing on the social aspect of an online assignment, while wikis would be better suited to reposting information from group research. Jim Mc Intyre