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* Single author
* Published chronologically
* Text
* Images
* Links to blogs, web pages, media
* Interactive format
* Wider network of social media
* Themes
* Personalise, blackgrounds
* Community element
* Information sharing
* Mobile- accessible on phones

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* Static
* Viewers can not contribute
* Viewing only
* Not for interacting
* Can only be interactive by embedding online resources such as Padlet and Flipgrid
* SlideShare- PowerPoint
* Flickr- Images
* YouTube- videos
*Google sites
* Embed codes to embed artifacts
* Link to other pages

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* Commentaries
* Publication for audiences
* Reflective journal
* Thoughts, ideas
* Expression of you
* Graphics
* Video's
* News on a subject
* Personal diary online
* Art, photographs, sketches, videos, music, audio,

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* Professional sharing
* Publication for audiences
* Reflective journal
* Supports feedback on ideas
* Students interact by adding comments to posts
* Students log learning chronologically
* Privacy settings
* Can be set for different  audiences
* Learning can be global
* SAMR-Transformative pedagogies
* Teachers feedback
* Peer feedback
* Tool to measure progress and processes
* Teaches students to be critical readers, evaluate and comment
* Learning portfolio
* Students can use multi-modal forms of communication
* Allows for differentiation
* Class blog & add all students
*

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* Header
* Logo or Heading
* Pages
* Menu
* Content
* Pages

* Footer
* Contact page
* Information about you

* Sidebar
* Widgets
* Highlight content
* Links

* Body
* Content
* Posts- thoughts/opinion/news
* Pages- Static
* Contact, About me

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"I like the idea of a blog that you can 'hear' the author's voice"

"Images to support thoughts and ideas"

"It's a good idea to insert questions to engage readers and stimulate discussion"

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* Privacy settings can be set for select students via emails
* They can be completely private or public also
*

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Resource from Moodle Week 3

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* Google's Blogger
* Edublogs
* Wordpress
* KidBlogs

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Resource Moodle Week 3

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In putting this diagram together I've tried to focus on "best" practices. In addition I have included some further insights to help address "why" in specific instances. How you ultimately construct your blog will be based on specific needs and goals of your site, but hopefully this diagram will go a long way in helping you get there.

I also have a very simple rule that I want to share with you - "Form" is wonderful and I do believe that websites should aspire to be beautiful, but "Function" is critical -meaning that your first obligation is to make sure that your visitors can easily read and digest your content. .

While this piece is focused on the "anatomy of a blog," I have also included header and footer elements as I do think they can add tremendously to how you might approach the construction of your blog. If you wanted to take things further and create custom headers and footers for specific pages, Headway does offer an easy path to doing so.

1) Site/Business Name: This is as you would think: the name of your site. A logo or other image of some kind can help, particularly if you are looking to establish a specific tone that you will then use your blog design to further highlight.

2) Main Navigation: I like to place the "Blog" at the very end of the main navigation, particularly for sites with a static homepage. The reason I like to place the blog at the end is because I want it to be as visually present as possible, particularly since the blog is the most dynamic portion of a website, and through a blog, a site owner has multiple opportunities to convey a wide variety of mission-critical ideas.

3) Secondary Navigation: The secondary navigation is something I've been featuring more in my sites in part because WordPress has done a great job in allowing site owners a very way to create "custom menus." Secondary navigation is great because it affords you a nice opportunity to break up your site taxonomy. I've found that placing critical services in the main navigation and then placing information based items such as "about" and "contact" in the secondary navigation is a great way to make it easy for different people to quickly find different areas that are relevant to them.

4) Main Contact Area: This particular piece of digital real-estate is critical, as typically your header is site wide (the same header for the entire site.) Many sites like to include their social media accounts here, and again, depending on the business that can be a great idea; but other times less is more, so for many businesses a phone number and nothing else is the most effective use of this space.

5) Blog Body Area: From the blog body area, a site owner has many options and opportunities to really make an impression.

From a visual standpoint, the design of your blog should help reinforce your brand. From an organizational standpoint, the overall display of your blog, and how you place various elements, should serve to further increase the confidence that your readers have in you.

Suddenly, things like color scheme, font size and character spacing really start to take on a level of added urgency. You'll also want to give some thought to how many posts you want to include on each blog post. Typically the standard is 10 posts, but of late many sites are adopting an "endless scrolling" approach.

6) Blog Post Titles: As a new visitor enters your blog page, they are going to be doing a few things immediately. First, they are going to be scanning your blog to see if they even want to stay. Then, they are going to determine what they want to read. Your Blog Post Titles have a huge impact on this.

You should offer up a nice visual contrast to provide adequate clues to your readers in terms of these are the "really big subjects" on this page. Also, it is critical that you write eye-catching headlines to encourage people to click through.

7) Meta Information: There are so many ways to go with "meta information" that range from what to include to how to style. I like to view the meta information as a series of clues that a site owner can offer a reader to help further convince the reader that this is the post for them.

I like to start with the date, as it provides your readers with a clear signal that you are active and present. Of course for sites that blog very infrequently, I'd recommend not including the date.

"By Author" is another nice meta element. Your readers probably don't know the writers of your site, but the simple act of including a name says that a post is written by a human rather than a corporate or business "entity." Being human goes a long way and this little crumb of humanity helps.

The number of comments is probably the biggest signal you can provide regarding the popularity of a particular post. If people are commenting on a post, a visual proof is a very strong indication to visitors on your blog that they too might want to click on that particular post. In the "blog anatomy diagram" you might have noticed that the second post has "25 comments," which in this case would be a compelling reason for a reader to click through, if only to see what all the excitement is about. Also, with comments you do have some interesting options should you want to take thing a bit further.

8) Social Validations. Another strong signal to "incentivize" your blog page visitors is to include on your main blog page a direct callout to how often a particular post has been shared, inside of various social media outlets.

Again, in our example, the second post has seen considerably more activity on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, which would be a very compelling additional signal (along with a relevant title and also a high number of comments) that this is a good post to read.

9) Excerpt Text: The Excerpt is "a condensed version of your blog post." In WordPress there is a default amount of text that will be included (which you can customize.) WordPress offers up a number of ways to manage your excerpts. Headway also offers up some nice options for customizing your excerpts.

I have found that a nice way is to approach excerpts is to set up a default approach that you are happy with and then to, as needed, use the excerpt field that is available when you create a new post in WordPress when you want to include more text.

I've also seen some sites include the full version of their most recent post directly on their blog page, but my feeling is that if your readers are on your blog page they are likely there to see a great deal of potential content in a short amount of time. Therefore, I tend to direct my clients to opt for brevity rather than having visitors do some additional scrolling to get past the first post - so generally I recommend not including full posts on your blog.

10) Images: This is another area that is open to a wide array of approaches. Many sites will go for a very linear and organized look and will include a featured image that will align in exactly the same place for each excerpt. For some sites that have enough visual breadth that can be a great approach.

In the sample I've put together, instead of the featured image approach, I've offered up a variety of image placed in a different positions for each post. This can be accomplished by taking advantage of the custom "excerpt" field that is available when you create (or edit) a post. Just a quick heads up for all the WordPress users - I have yet to be able to figure out how to include a caption in my images with custom excerpts - I'm sure it's possible, just that it seems to not work when I've tried to do it in the past.

While I don't have any "science" to back this up, I believe that by breaking up the visual images, both in terms of size and placement, you are also encouraging your blog readers' eyes to move around more, which hopefully means they are even on a subconscious level paying a little more attention to your site.

Also, the simple truth is that some images look better aligned left, while others really fit better aligned right.

11) Read More. This seems pretty straight forward, but it's actually an important opportunity to add some visual spice to your blog page. A blog page usually consists of 10 excerpts, so in this case we are looking at 10 "read more" buttons. Yet another item that is very easy to customize in Headway.

12) Older Posts (also newer posts if you are not on the front page of your blog): Again, this is pretty self explanatory in terms of function. I recommend using a different color (or shade) than your "Read More" buttons in order to avoid any confusion on the part of the reader.

The confusion factor is critical here, so I'd like to point it out. At this point in a reader's journey they have either not seen anything they like, they have already read all the posts they are interested in on this blog page (which means they now want to see some more), or they are interested in learning more about your site. This means we want to make sure they head to either the header or, seeing as how they have already scrolled down this far, we make their life easier by including what we think are the important "about us" items in our footer (more on the footer shortly).It is critical that no matter where a reader is in their journey we take great care not to confuse them - for example, not using color contrast between "older posts" and the "read more" buttons. When we introduce confusion on a site, we are also chipping away at the trust our readers have in us.

13) Sidebar: A few items to consider with your blog sidebar include the location (left or right), and the addition of a background color. As the sidebar is persistent (meaning that the sidebar is present both on your main blog page and your single posts), I'm of the belief that placing the sidebar on the right provides a better reading experience. But as we are about to explore, a sidebar provides some critical opportunities for your site to develop an enhanced relationship with a reader, so placing the sidebar on the left might be worth the potential downside of alienating some readers.

The color scheme for your sidebar is also another big consideration. A few elements to explore are the background of the entire sidebar, borders for the sidebar, borders for sidebar elements, font size, font weight (in this example the headlines bolder) and font color (in this example the font color lighter than the font color in the body).

The goal with your sidebar is to provide added value, and to offer up visual aides to help your blog visitors make good reading decisions that will give them a great experience and ultimately encourage them to take an action (to comment, to share, to subscribe, to download, to buy or even to contact you.)

Also, as you are going to see, within your sidebar you are trying to provide an additional experience - so you will want to explore different options in terms of the order of elements and what elements to include. One piece of advice - avoid the temptations of over-burdening your sidebar with too many content items. Doing so will likely encourage a complete lack of action, whereas if you limit what is happening on your sidebar, you are making it that much easier for your visitors to make a decision.

14) You Are Here!: Create a very short introduction box explaining to the visitor what your site is all about. Again - very short.

As you get active with blogging you will begin to see that more and more visitors are starting to enter your site through either your blog posts or your blog page. These visitors are quite likely not familiar with your site, and found these pages through a variety of options including through social media referrals or search engines, so it helps to "introduce yourself."

The reasoning behind this strategy is to very quickly "pre-qualify" your readers, and also to very quickly provide your readers with some additional context about your site. You want to further qualify readers who are browsing versus readers that might be interested in a longer relationship (i.e. potential leads.)

Readers of any stripe are great and your blog should provide value to ALL your readers, but it is okay to let people know exactly what you do. This strategy has a particular impact on how readers view your blog and also how they view the additional elements of your sidebar. You want interested readers to know exactly what you do, as they are likely to be even more interested in having a relationship with you.

15) Subscribe: On many blogs you will see the request/offer to subscribe feature very prominently, and sometimes often. The reasoning is that, unlike other opportunities for further engagement, your newsletter list is something that you as a site owner actually own. Therefore the need to capture opt-in requests is critical; it is through these lists that you can then begin to regularly contact your fan base (and let them know about events, subsequent blog posts and other related developments.)

With so much at stake, it is clear why the newsletter subscribe box is usually found "above the fold". If you are going to get serious about your online newsletter efforts, take some time and do your homework - there is a ton of information out there so make the most of it!

16) Popular Posts: In this space where you might want to include either "Popular Posts" or "Recent Posts."Some sites even offer up a "hand selected" version showcasing the site owners favorite posts. In any event the benefit for this is to make it easy for people to scan and see "what you are all about" and also to find other great articles you have written.

Also note in this example the change of color on the text of the posts (they are links so they are blue) and the additional contrast by making the color of the comments red. Again - you want to provide your readers with clear signals about relevancy.

17) Critical Ask. This single box might be the most important piece of your entire blog. It might be so important that your entire site hinges on it. That said, if you have a desire to see it "convert," it is important that you do everything you can to convince your readers that your "ask" is worthy of their time, and in this scenario that starts with an amazing blog that delivers tremendous value. So by the time you make your "Ask" you have already started off on a great foot with your readers.

And I know for many of you the inclination is to include that "Facebook" box right there, and for some sites that is a great idea, but for many sites the success or failure has nothing to do with your Facebook audience (or for that matter any other social stream) so you want to make sure you make wise and economic use of this area of your blog.

18) Trust Factors. This is a great opportunity to further validate your "Critical Ask" either through testimonials, or to showcase specific accreditations to further bolster your "expert" positioning.

If you want to utilize this area to "sell" products - either yours or third party products - that is great; just make sure that the products are top shelf, and also that in some way the products you are providing access to in some way further bolsters the entire "story" of your site. Showcasing amazing products can also go a long way in helping in to reinforce your value as a trusted source.

19) Footer. There are a number of factors to consider with your footer, but as this element is usually a site wide element there is real value in "getting it right."

A few form factors to consider are color scheme, font sizes and font weights. In this example there is a darker background and also the Main Navigation elements use two different colors (blue and orange) to offer up even more contrast. The footer body text is white.

By the time a reader has made it to your footer, assuming they are still actively engaged, they likely are starting to get into the "learn more" mode so do your best to address this quickly and concisely.

20) Footer Headlines. In this example we are not trying to rehash their entire site experience. Instead the goal is to provide readers with easy access to some of what we think might be their "common" questions. Again, the color contrast allows the reader to make a quick decision - is the reader at the right place or does the reader need to keep looking?

21) Request for Action/Contact Info. In some instances you might have something really special that you want to call out, such as a white paper or an exclusive offer. This is another nice opportunity to offer up the access to this piece, but even more so to continue to position yourself as a field matter expert.

This is also a good opportunity to provide your contact information one last time.

22) Social Follow. Links to your various social media channels. Again though we are in the footer, so likely the intent of your readers is less about "follow" and more focused on trying to learn more about you. By now you've provided them with an amazing experience so it's important to continue to build on that with some well realized social media efforts.

Guest Author Bio: Through his company Gadarian Digital, David Gadarian works with businesses to help realize more value from their online marketing and communications effort with a results driven approach motivated by your bottom line. David has applied his skills across a wide array of businesses all with very unique practice areas and approaches and his company is a listed Nimble Solutions Provider.
David's just released first book Better Business Blogging empowers businesses to realize a business blogging framework focused on best practices tailored to your business story and strengths.

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by David Gadarian Click the image above to download the full-size version! In putting this diagram together I've tried to focus on "best" practices. In addition I have included some further insights to help address "why" in specific instances.

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The Quality Factor: Learning to Blog FOR your Students

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The Quality Factor: Learning to Blog FOR your Students

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Resource Moodle Week 3

Take home notes from the below article and videos.

1st video

"Good conversation is important and can learn more from comments than post!"

"Good quality comment- takes idea or thought  and adds to comment or asks a question or add  idea not thought of"

"Good spelling"

"Proof read comment"

" Positive reflection of you"

"Appropriate humour"

"Stick to the topic post"

2nd Video

"Open with a specific compliment"

"Add new factual information in comment"

"Don't repeat information in comments"

"Connect to blog writer e.g something in common"

"Conversations are good so respond to comments and reply"

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This was the last post in a series of seven blog posts digging deeper into learning about blogging FOR your students.

Recognizing and Expecting Quality in Student Blogging

Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students' progress on their blog requires pedagogical commitment. It is a commitment to student learning and quality work, not a commitment to using a specific technology platform.

My guiding questions for QUALITY blogging are:

How do teachers recognize different levels of quality?

How does assessment for student blogging look like?

A blogging rubric becomes an invaluable tool to recognize quality, assess your students and plan to support each one at their own level.

Blogging and Commenting Rubrics

Part of blogging is commenting, which deserves its own rubric to address individual components that contribute to the overall quality of a comment.

Andrew Churches divides his Commenting Rubric (pdf) into two parts:

Construction - this is how the comments is constructed, its flow, logic and language

Understanding/Evaluations - this is a progression from simple to complex commenting; from simple statements to reflection and critique

Take a look at the two videos below, produced by two third grade classes. Mrs. Rogo's 3d grade class from Florida and Mrs. Yollis' class from California discussed and shared their ideas and thoughts about quality commenting.

See a commenting rubric below that you can use to help you recognize and support quality commenting.

The rubric is based on Andrew Churches Bloom' Taxonomy Commenting Rubric (pdf) from above as well as Kim Cofino's rubric and University of Wisconsin's Blogging Rubric

Unpacking Student Samples

It is not easy to teach/coach students quality blogging, if the teacher does not know what quality in blogging looks like. As mentioned in Module 1 of this course, blogging is about writing, but it starts with reading. Reading other blogs (many different ones) gives us an opportunity to see, become aware, evaluate and recognize all different levels of quality in blogs. Reading other blogs and comments helps us sharpen our own skills.
Andrew Churches uses Bloom's Taxonomy very successfully to assess the quality of student blogs. I especially liked his Blog Journalling Rubric (pdf) , where he adds fantastic examples, demonstrating different levels of quality.

Andrew Churches: Edorigami: ?Various Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy addressed in Student Blog Posts - http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/blogging+rubric.pdf

I believe that seeing and learning to recognize quality samples of student work in various areas of the rubrics (writing, voice, presentation, citation, community, commenting) is beneficial to educators, new to blogging with their students.

Let's take a look at several examples that demonstrate different levels of quality blogging.

In the example below, you will see 4th grade students consistently (and almost exclusively) use the words "fun", "exciting" and "amazing" as they are commenting on a blog post that documented an author's visit via Skype into the classroom. Some comments are incomplete, leaving the reader hanging and wondering. Students needed to elaborate further in their comments to show understanding as well as connections.

After giving students feedback on their first comments, they went back to re-submit their comments. Take a look and compare these two before-and-after examples.

Here are a few more comments left by students, teachers, pre-service teachers and other adults. These comments are well intended. They surely were left to make conversation, let the blog author know that their posts are being read, acknowledged and appreciated. How would they hold up against the commenting rubric?

Do these comments contribute to the topic of the original blog post (Even without having seen the original blog post...) ?

Is there evidence of understanding of topic of original blog post?

Are links to relevant resources added?

Is there a meaningful addition (information, point of view)?

Is an idea or point of view well stated?

Is there solid evidence of content knowledge or thinking present?

What about the following comments? Where would they fall on a rubric?

Linda Yollis, winner of the 2011 Edublog Awards in the categories of Best Classroom Blog & Most Influential Blog Post left this comment on my blog:

Silvia, you've hit the nail on the head...quality reciprocation is the key to building an audience! All the blogging relationships I've built with teachers, classrooms, and students have come from reciprocal commenting. Teachers often ask me how I have connected with so many classes around the world. The answer is through consistent quality commenting. When I started, I would visit lots of blogs and leave comments. I'd try to make a connection or add relevant information to a post, and I'd always end with a question. My hope was to engage the class in a conversation. If I would get a reply from the teacher/class, I would go back. If I got no response, I'd move on to other blogs and keep trying. Many teachers/classes not only responded in their comment section, but they would visit my class blog and connect. A comment that shows you've read the post and are interested in what's happening in the classroom is much more valuable than "Our class loves your blog, please visit ours!" Of course, composing thoughtful comments takes time, but the payoff is tremendous! One of the first teachers I connected with was Kathleen Morris (@kathleen_morris). Through reciprocal quality commenting, we've built a relationship that spans four classes. Students regularly comment to each other, and two families from Kathleen's Australian class visited our class when they vacationed in Los Angeles! I teach third grade and when my students earn their own blogs, they are excited to get that first red ClustrMap dot and a comment or two. I teach dedicated lessons about how to comment?using our class blog, so by the time students have their own blogs, they have a good understanding of composing a quality comment. Before too long, I will hear a student complain, "No one is commenting on my blog." My response to them is, "Hmm...well...whose blog have you been commenting on? Where did you leave your last comment?" They look a little sheepish as the light bulb goes on. In life, you have to give to get. If you want people visiting and connecting with you, you have to get out there and model what you want! Focusing on a few blogs is a good idea. It can be overwhelming to try and keep up with too many classes. Deputy Mitchell's (@DeputyMitchell) Quadblogging idea is a great place to begin. http://quadblogging.net/ There are so many wonderful global projects springing up. It's tempting to join too many. I have found that if I over-schedule my class, we are not able to participate fully and that doesn't help anyone. Budgeting your time and choosing projects that fit your schedule makes blogging and global projects more meaningful and enjoyable. Finally, I love your idea about mentoring student bloggers. Edublog's Student Blogging Challenge is a wonderful place to volunteer your time. Following the Twitter hashtag #comments4kids is another way to support students. As you can see, I am passionate about educational blogging! I thank you, Silvia, for guiding and encouraging teachers to blog. It's the best project I've seen in my twenty-five years in the classroom!

Please don't just notice the length of the comment compared to the others, but take a look at writing, voice, content and presentation. Ask yourself, if:

the comment contributed further information on the blog's topic (The role of reciprocation in blogging)?

the comment's author added further resources?

the content was organized and easy to follow?

the author's voice came through?

these types of exchanges between blog authors and commenters support a new emerging skill that lies in the ability to INTERACT with an author or with one's reader?

We need to be reading AND consciously reflecting on the quality of a blog post or comment to become good at recognizing and guiding our students to quality work in blogging.

Keeping a previously created blogging rubric in mind, I took a closer look at the blog posts written by 4th and 5th graders during an actual skype call, the post was then edited and formatted after the call had ended.

How would you have assessed their blog writing?

Below you will find other samples of blog posts. Keep the blogging rubric in mind, how would you evaluate them? Where does the blog author need to improve?

Spelling, grammar and punctuation would be something to work on for this student (proof reading and editing). The visual formatting of the body of text could also use improvement. I am not sure if the link included in the post was supposed to cite the author's source of information or be the image credit. Once I followed the link, I discovered that the site (and therefore I have to assume the image as well) is under copyright. Simply adding the link to the site where the image was found is not enough.

I liked the inviting title to the blog post. It made me curious to continue reading. The post author starts out describing a personal experience. I am left with wishing for more information. A link to Wikipedia, for example, explaining the condition, would have been inviting to learn more. A visual in the public domain (free to use), grabbed from Wikipedia would have also been a nice addition. I am left with many questions for this blog author. His writing left me unsatisfied. I don't feel that he told a "whole" story.

The blog post above is from my favorite fourth grade blogger Miriam. She was a finalist in at the Edublog Awards. What I love about her writing, is that I can HEAR her voice so clearly (although I have never met her personally). In the above post, she takes her readers along a car ride as she observes the autumn trees changing colors. She takes images of the trees she sees and inserts them into her blog post in order support her writing. The post is not only a narrative, but Miriam weaves information into the post as well. Miriam closes her blog post with question directed at the reader, inviting them to continue a conversation or information exchange

Action Steps

Take a look at the Edublog Awards nominees as well as the Student Blogging Challenge. There are literally hundreds of links to student and classroom blogs. With the blogging and commenting rubric in hand, evaluate a few (or many) of them:

what do you like?

what components do you consider "QUALITY"

what could be improved?

how would you coach that student?

how would you transfer the learning opportunity to your own classroom?

Share: and discuss your own auditing methods and successes for quality blogging with students.

Contribute to the Quality Blogging/ Commenting Audit Meme

Select a blog post or blog comment to audit (Professional or Student)

Take a screenshot or copy and paste the post or comment into your blog post (be sensitive whether you want to reveal any names or references)

Include or link to the rubric you use to assess the quality of post or comment

Audit the post or comment by describing your train of thought regarding the level of quality you would assess your chosen post or comment

Suggest how you would coach the author of audited post or comment to improve

Tag (at least) three educators and challenge them to audit a post or comment

Write a blog post reflecting on your learning during the auditing process.

Downloads

This was the last post in a series of seven blog posts digging deeper into learning about blogging FOR your students.

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The Quality Factor: Learning to Blog FOR your Students

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This was the last post in a series of seven blog posts digging deeper into learning about blogging FOR your students. Recognizing and Expecting Quality in Student Blogging Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students' progress on their blog requires pedagogical commitment.

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Image courtesy of:
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

http://langwitches.org/blog/2020/01/10/the-quality-factor-learning-to-blog-for-your-students/

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Image courtesy of:
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

http://langwitches.org/blog/2020/01/10/the-quality-factor-learning-to-blog-for-your-students/

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Image courtesy of:
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

http://langwitches.org/blog/2020/01/10/the-quality-factor-learning-to-blog-for-your-students/

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Key thinker in Education Technology

Image courtesy of:
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

http://langwitches.org/blog/2020/01/10/the-quality-factor-learning-to-blog-for-your-students/

SAMR & Blogging

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Other ways to use technology in the classroom.

Links and resources

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This was the video Dr. Peterson shared with the RB60 Faculty on technology inservice on Friday, October 24, 2014.

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Cross posted to the Langwitches Blog by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

The step from using a static website or emails as a mean to share announcements or calendar items to sharing the same type of items on a blogging platform is not far nor a steep step. My ultimate goal for using a classroom blog or student blogfolios though, is that of creating transformative teaching and learning opportunities, not to have a platform that substitutes a composition book or paper journal. To make the difference visible and clearer, I am looking through the lens of the SAMR model.

First, a Classroom Blog seen through the lens of SAMR
What about Student Blogs?
Substitution - technology acts as a direct substitute for the task

A student uses the blog as a tool to substitute a handwritten/typed and printed assignment. The student copies and pastes a Google Doc or other file from a word processing program into a blog post. The comments on the blog are closed or not being utilized. Students might upload a scanned image of an analog test score, worksheet or other analog artifact. Students might answer a prompt or question posed by teacher to the entire class. There is no added value to the learning process versus the analog task.

Augmentation - technology acts as a direct tool substitution with functional improvement

Students use their blog as a platform to publish assignments (research papers, essays, responses) for their teacher to see. The blog is a place to push out information, possibly for Student Led Conferences or a showcase/process portfolio. They insert or embed images, videos, presentations or audio to support their written text. They possibly insert hyperlinks to additional resources. Students tag and categorize their posts with searchable labels. The blog platform becomes a digital organization of students' online learning records, which is centralized, archived and searchable. Teachers use the comment section to give feedback to their students about their performance. Classmates read each other's papers and leave comments.

Modification - technology allows for significant task redesign

Students use hyperlinked writing as part of digital writing process to show and connect their thinking to topics, influences, relationships and process between previously published content and external resources. Students communicate beyond the written word, in multimedia and transmedia ways. It is evident in their work that they are writing with a global audience in mind and their work encourages conversation, invites multiple perspectives to add and influence their work. Students receive constructive feedback from peers as part of the writing process. Comments inform students' writing and original task of "paper" extends and "spills over" into the comment section, altering form of writing piece as well notion of "completion" of paper.Students are demonstrating writing skills for digital spaces, by observing digital citizenship, hyperlinked, networked, peer- connected and non- linear writing.

Redefinition - technology allows for the creation of new tasks previously inconceivable

The student blog becomes an embedded part of the process and a natural extension of communication and learning cycle by documenting evidence of learning, reflecting, sharing and receiving feedback in order to consider revision. Teachers and students actively and strategically disseminate and connect the blogs to a learning network for feedback and resources. The blog archives artifacts, reflections and connects learning over time. The blog becomes a natural extension beyond assigned academic work and is being used as a hub to document students' learning, demonstrating self-directed and self-motivated lifelong learning habits as they are organizing, building and maintaining their own online learning records, a growing academic digital footprint and develop their personal brand as well as personal learning networks.

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Curriculum21 - Upgrading Blogs Through Lens of SAMR

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Cross posted to the Langwitches Blog by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano The step from using a static website or emails as a mean to share announcements or calendar items to sharing the same type of items on a blogging platform is not far nor a steep step.

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Why Teachers And Students Should Blog: 18 Benefits of Educational Blogging

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Why Teachers And Students Should Blog: 18 Benefits of Educational Blogging

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Image courtesy of Kathleen Morris

http://www.kathleenamorris.com/2018/03/14/benefits-blogging/

(Resource Moodle Week 3)

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* Multi- author page
* Anyone can edit, delete,  and add
* Not Chronological
* Many different ways to collaborate
* Many functions, buttons, and menus
* Creative
* History to identify contributions, dates and progress
* Can't have two concurrent authors
* Can recover deletions
* Records edits to identify errors
*Intuitive editing tools
* Requires rules and etiquette
* Text
* Images
* Links to blogs, web pages, media
* Interactive format
* Information sharing
(Moodle, Week 3, 2020)
* Supports Word and spreadsheets

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* Collaborate ideas
* Archive data in one place

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* Students participation in ongoing creation/evolution of the wiki
* Students can interact socially with peers
* Collaborative knowledge building
* Students can create pages, assign permissions or creating a table /grid for student contributions
* Short or long-term projects
* Students can hyperlink text and integrate media to create a multimedia representation of their content
* Groups can be assigned pages
* SAMR-Transformation pedagogies
* Tool to measure progress and processes

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* Similar to an ever-changing piece of butchers paper that everyone can write on
(Moodle, Week 3, 2020)
* Pages

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* Classroom Brainstorming to vote on an assessment task.
Create a classroom wiki to brainstorm design solutions for homework such as how to modify a recipe/product to a more sustainable product then discuss  in class. The class chooses the voted recipe/textile project as the class assessment task.

* Group collaborative food sensory analysis.
Create a classroom wiki with separate pages for each different food group. As students complete the sensory analysis  they add their evaluations to the wiki. Use graphs to track trends and upload. Resource can be used as exemplar for the following years unit.

* Peer pair evaluations.
Each pair of students has their own page. Upload photographs of finished recipe/textile product. Students work in pairs and provide feedback on each others product.  Input feedback. Students have the opportunity to modify or  justify their design choices prior to the teacher assessing the end product.

* Class communication
Use a classroom wiki to create pages for group cooking so students can inform what ingredients they are providing for their assessment group function cook

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I can really see the usefulness of a wiki. It allows the students to have more control and direction as a large group and classroom.

I like how it allows the classroom to break the ceiling and gives all students a voice.

The teacher becomes the facilitator.

Enables students to use higher-order thinking  such as Blooms Taxonomy -Analyse and create.

SAMR- students transform from teacher-centred classroom discussions to student-led interactive classroom discussions accessible anytime, anywhere, unlimited in time and thought processes. It enables higher-order thinking and problem solving, promotes democracy and builds trust amongst the group.

As Susan Kinzie observed, "Wikis can encourage creativity, remove the limits on class time, give professors a better sense of student understanding and interest, and keep students writing, thinking, and  questioning."¹⁵

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* Permissions

*Wiki must have clear rules and etiquette for social commentary

* Privacy, which is particularly important in academic settings. Many wikis offer "class member only" settings.

* Students first access wiki, request an invitation, which triggers an e-mail to the instructor to grant access.

*

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* PBWorks- notifications of multiple authors and potential issues
* WikiMatrix
* wetpaint
* Blackboard
*

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* Problematic for first-timers
* Deletions
* Only one author at a time
* Complex
* Dedication and effort to navigate as a teacher
* Tutorials or training is required for student use
*

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Resource ( Moodle, Week 3, 2020)

"One famous example is Wiki-pedia, an online encyclopedia with no 'authors' but millions of contributors and editors"

"Open structure allows others to change what someone has written and promotes openess".

(Teachers First, Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers, 2020)
https://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

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TeachersFirst: Wiki Walk-Through: The Basics

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TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through explains in teacher-friendly terms what wikis are and how they can be used effectively in the classroom. Find out why teachers use wikis. Learn solid pedagogy behind using wikis in the c <meta name=

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Key Takeaways

Wikis help engage students in their learning while providing social interaction with their peers in the learning process.

A wiki assignment should enable students to work at the conceptual level of understanding on authentic projects where they can solve problems, discover relationships, discern patterns, and develop a deep understanding of content.

At the heart of a wiki project is collaborative knowledge building by students mediated by user-generated design, as explained in this article.

Millennial students want learning environments that engage them in their learning, reflect their fearlessness with technology, and provide for social interaction with their peers in the learning process. ¹ Newer models of learning specify a participatory culture of learning where the instructor shifts from knowledge provider to guide, helping students gain understanding and make meaning through authentic activities that enable them to learn from and with classmates. ² Although learning management systems (LMSs) provide discussions, blogs, and journals, many instructors have found that wikis meet the needs of the changing educational environment by allowing students to take ownership of their learning as they collaborate on projects. ³

Getting Started

Numerous companies offer wikis, many of them free of ads, at low or no cost to the individual educator. WikiMatrix provides a comparison of wiki features for 21 wiki packages for those just getting started. Issues to consider include:

Privacy, which is particularly important in academic settings. Many wikis offer "class member only" settings.

Scalability, especially whether a wiki limits the number of pages or storage space. Most free wikis provide unlimited pages and 2 gigabytes of storage, but they limit folders and page access controls to paid subscriptions.

Power of the underlying engine, specifically whether it can handle the volume of visitors. Campus technical support might want to determine this capability.

Portability, or the ability to export the wiki site. Free wiki software may not offer tools to easily export the site, whereas paid subscriptions do.

Also, the types of files supported, whether WYSIWYG editing is available, and whether tech support is available.

It might help to visit wiki sites similar to the one being contemplated from each of the providers under consideration. Three of the most popular wiki vendors for educators include PbWorks.com, Wetpaint.com, and Wikispaces.com. ⁴

At the institutional level, there are several options for setting up wikis for faculty including free and open-source software, institutional subscriptions to hosted software, and wikis embedded in the institution's LMS. Some institutions might prefer to self-host wikis by setting up "wiki farms" on university servers with open-source wiki software such as MediaWiki or Twiki. Self-hosting affords administrative and data control, but it comes with administrative costs for installing patches and updates, as well as spamming issues. ⁵ Hosted services such as PBWorks, Wikispaces, and Wetpaint offer institutional subscriptions to ad-free, fully functional wikis, although the most promising solution for institutions may be the incorporation of wikis into the LMS. Some LMS providers such as Angel and Moodle already provide wikis embedded in the courseware, while others such as Blackboard promise that upcoming releases will include embedded wikis.

With a wiki platform selected, the next step is setting it up. Setting up a wiki means registering with the wiki provider and giving the site a name. To make the URL memorable for students, we usually name the wiki using the course number, such as EDED5320.pbworks.com. Once registration is complete, the wiki provider will assign a URL that includes the course name. When students visit the website for the first time, they can request an invitation, which triggers an e-mail to the instructor to grant access.

Designing Wikis for Learning

Designing the wiki learning space before a course begins guides student input and enables students to successfully complete the wiki assignment. Wiki design includes creating pages, assigning permissions as to who may write on a page, or creating a table or grid for student contributions on the pages. It also helps to provide clearly written directions on a page on the wiki.

The wiki assignment should enable students to work at the conceptual level of understanding on authentic projects where they can solve problems, discover relationships, discern patterns, and develop a deep understanding of content. The following sections describe wiki learning designs that we have used in our courses for both long-term and short-term assignments. Unlike blogs or discussion boards, which are designed to facilitate conversation, share opinions, resolve conflicts, or achieve agreements, ⁶ these wiki designs provide a malleable environment for students to co-create knowledge by juxtaposing their contributions as part of the whole.

Long-Term Designs

Many courses use wikis as a group project space where classes create a research paper or a group project with pages for specific topics. In our courses, we have used the group project approach in a graduate foundations course where student groups created pages about different learning theories. The wiki was set up with a main page, which served as a table of contents, and one page for each learning theory. Rather than simply producing a paper or a PowerPoint presentation, students found it really intriguing to create pages where they could hyperlink text and integrate media to create a multimedia representation of their content (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Constructivism Wiki Page
In an undergraduate social studies methods and field service course, students' final project was an interdisciplinary thematic unit on the wiki (see Figure 2). This complex task was assigned as a group project to a grade level team. Typically, each member of the team was given responsibility for a section on the final product.
Figure 2. Thematic Unit Wiki Page
Moving the course project from paper format (most projects were 25-30 pages) to the wiki had multiple advantages. Since the latest version of the wiki is available 24 × 7 in a central place, students find they need fewer meetings to finish their work. The instructor can also periodically check on the progress of each team, intervening quickly if a team is lagging. Finally, the instructor can grade the final product from the wiki and then create a wiki archive where students in future classes can see the work done by previous classes.

Short-Term Designs

Wikis can also be used for short-term projects - usually scheduled for a week or for a short unit of instruction such as a chapter. Many of these designs use tables as a framework. Tables are created using wiki tools or in Word and copied and pasted into the wiki. Short-term designs include:
Role Play
In the role play design, students take the perspective of someone who is pertinent to the instruction. In the example in Figure 3, students were studying freedom of speech in digital environments. To help them understand this concept, they studied the case of the San Jose public library, which discontinued the use of web filters on their computers. Students played a person in the community (one persona per cell of the grid) and discussed how this decision would affect them. The role play personas represented a diverse group whose opinions regarding the decision would be very different. To begin, students read about the issue in the chapter and a news report from a local television station. They then went to the wiki page, chose a person to role play, and posted their comments. The community roles chosen for this project included the mayor, the head librarian, the children's librarian, an adult who occasionally surfed porn, a Chinese diplomat visiting the community, and a parent of small children, among others. Through participating in this project, students came to see the interplay of positive and negative rights regarding free speech in digital environments.
Figure 3. Role Play Wiki Page Video Playlist
Similar to a bibliography, a video playlist is a compilation of video resources. Through the vast availability of video on the web, students can easily make connections between course concepts and the real world. For this wiki activity, students found a video on YouTube that illustrated an issue discussed in the opening chapter of the course. Each cell of a grid created on the wiki contained an issue from the course. Students could embed the video in the cell by following directions on the wiki. See an example of this wiki in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Video Playlist Wiki Page
Through this project, students came to understand not only the relevance of the issues to their lives but also that these issues are extremely complex. As one student who explored freedom of speech remarked:

"I looked up freedom of speech on internet issues on Youtube and I came across how the goverment [sic] is trying to control the web due to home[land] security issues. If I am understanding correctly, the goverment [sic] wants to have the authority to shut down private websites if they seem to be some kind of threat. If this is true, I understand the concern for homeland security, but at the same time, it is taking away our freedom of speech."

Granted, many videos in YouTube contain spurious information. Students should be cautioned to examine their contribution to the video playlist using the criteria commonly used for evaluating a website to determine the credibility of both the producer and the content.
Analysis Grid
Unlike blogs and discussion boards, which represent each student's contributions in isolation, the wiki places all students' ideas in the same place. Students can see how their ideas compare to those of their classmates, and there is less repetition. In those instances where the objective is to help students identify and organize similarities and differences or advantages and disadvantages, an analysis grid design would be useful.

In the assignment shown in Figure 5, students were asked to identify the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous distance learning tools, their possible use in a classroom, and where they should be positioned on Dale's Cone of Experience. ⁷ Students were told to place their names by four tools in both modes that they chose to investigate and then to take these distance learning tools for a "test drive." They posted their evaluations of the advantages and disadvantages of these tools in the grid with the caveat that each person would add new information to the grid and that they should not repeat anything entered previously. Whether due to the wiki or that their entries were juxtaposed, responses tended to be longer and more thoughtful as a result of this design. This assignment had an extended time, however, because the entire class was accessing the same page.
Figure 5. Analysis Grid Assignment Carroll Diagram
The Carroll Diagram, created by Alice in Wonderland author and mathematician Lewis Carroll, is a type of logic diagram used to categorize and display information with two attributes, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Carroll Diagram of Numbers Between 1 and 10
Students find understanding these matrices difficult. In the example shown in Figure 6, students were studying Mayer's Active Learning Matrix, ⁸ which had an attribute of behavioral activity (low and high) and an attribute of cognitive engagement (low and high). To help them better understand each quadrant, they were asked to place an example of each quadrant's type of learning in the appropriate cell on the wiki. Had they posted that information in a blog or discussion board, it would have been decontextualized and abstract. By using the wiki, students could view their content in the appropriate context and compare their posting with other postings.
Figure 6. Carroll Diagram Grid Gallery Walk
A typical gallery walk activity involves walking around the room and viewing each poster, while the gallery walk wiki page juxtaposes each student's contribution for a side-by-side comparison. In the gallery walk shown in Figure 7, students placed their example of a PowerPoint slide lacking Mayer's Coherence Principle ⁹ next to an explanation of the slide's faults. Student comments reflecting on the importance of the coherence principle appear in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Figure 7. Gallery Walk Wiki
Dealing with Problems

Generally, course wikis require no more monitoring than other course websites. Informal monitoring is afforded through RSS feeds of changes. On a few occasions we have encountered some issues in working with a course wiki:

Students need to be reminded that the ordinary norms of civility that apply in other course environments extend to wiki environments.

If students accidentally erase the entire page, the page can be rolled back from page history. The only student who loses any work is the student who erased the page.

While a student is editing a page, other students are locked out from editing. Students need to realize that wiki etiquette requires prompt edits and saves.

Students need to be held accountable for participating in the collaborative process. Directions for the wiki project should include how participation will be evaluated.

Wiki Challenges

Researchers have noted positive effects to integrating wikis in higher ed courses, ¹⁰ but others have noted problems. While students enjoy the shared space and ease of use of wikis and frequently add and delete information, they are reluctant to edit each other's work. ¹¹ Ioanou and Artino ¹² also reported that students felt uncomfortable editing another's work and looked upon this requirement as an additional pressure. In addition, a course with an emphasis on collaborative learning might be a mismatch for a student who prefers learning alone. A study of solitary learners revealed that while these learners valued the multiple perspectives provided by online discussions with peers, they preferred individual accomplishment of course-specific tasks and did not readily participate in collaborative instruction. ¹³ Other students might not be comfortable in learning environments where they are expected to take ownership of their own learning, where changes in pedagogy might not fit their expectations and thus not be valued by them. ¹⁴ Finally, students need preparation for these new authoring environments - instructors cannot automatically assume that students understand the mechanics of shared authoring and peer editing.

Conclusion

A colleague recently joked that we should divide time into pre- and post-wiki periods. While that might be an extreme reaction to our evangelism for wiki learning environments, wikis do provide a powerful, creative venue for collaboration. Students have expressed enthusiasm about the integration of wikis into our courses, with several students saying, "I need to know about this for my school" or "This was my favorite part of the course." New learning environments must address the changing nature of the learner and the technological tools that have become the heartbeat of this generation. At the heart of a wiki project is collaborative knowledge building by students, mediated by user-generated design. In our experience, this has led to increased student engagement. As Susan Kinzie observed, "Wikis can encourage creativity, remove the limits on class time, give professors a better sense of student understanding and interest, and keep students writing, thinking, and questioning." ¹⁵

1. Donald E. Heller and Madeleine d'Ambrosio, eds., Generational Shockwaves and the Implications for Higher Education, TIAA-CREF Institute Series on Higher Education (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2008); Marc Prensky, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants," On the Horizon, vol. 9, no. 5 (October 2001), pp. 1-2; and James A. West and Margaret L. West, Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009).

2. Marc Prensky, Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2010); and Debra Sprague and Christopher Dede, "Constructivism in the Classroom: If I Teach This Way, Am I Doing My Job?" Learning & Leading with Technology, vol. 27, no. 1 (September 1999), pp. 6-9, 16-17.

3. Robert E. Cummings and Matt Barton, Wiki Writing: Collaborative Learning in the College Classroom (Ann Arbor, MI: Digital Culture Books, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the University of Michigan Library, 2008).

4. Bill Ferriter, "Learning With Blogs and Wikis," Educational Leadership, vol. 66, no. 5 (February 2009), pp. 34-38.

5. George Veletsianos, Emerging Technologies in Distance Education (Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, July 2010).

6. Panayiotis Zaphiris, Chee Siang Ang, and Andrew Laghos, "Online Communities," in The Human Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications, Second Ed., Andrew Sears and Julie A. Jacko, eds. (New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008), pp. 603-620.

7. Stephen Petrina, "Advanced Teaching Methods for the Technology Classroom," International Journal of Technology and Design Education, vol. 17, no. 1 (2007), pp. 109-111.

8. Richard E. Mayer, Multimedia Learning, Second Ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

9. Ibid.

10. Nicola Carr, "Wikis, Knowledge Building Communities, and Authentic Pedagogies in Pre-Service Teacher Education," in Hello! Where Are You in the Landscape of Educational Technology? Proceedings of ascilite Melbourne 2008, pp. 147-151; Irina Elgort, Alastair G. Smith, and Janet Toland, "Is Wiki an Effective Platform for Group Course Work?" Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 24, no. 2 (2008), pp. 195-210; and Steve Wheeler and Dawn Wheeler, "Using Wikis to Promote Quality Learning in Teacher Training," Learning, Media, and Technology, vol. 34, no. 1 (2009), pp. 1-10.

11. Brian Foley and Tae Chang, "Wiki as a Professional Development Tool," in Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) 2008,Karen McFerrin, Roberta Weber, Roger Carlsen, and Dee Anna Willis, eds. (Chesapeake, VA: AACE, 2008), pp. 2959-2966; Andri Ioannou and Anthony Artino, "Incorporating Wikis in an Educational Technology Course: Ideas, Reflections and Lessons Learned," in Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) 2008,Karen McFerrin, Roberta Weber, Roger Carlsen, and Dee Anna Willis, eds. (Chesapeake, VA: AACE, 2008), pp. 3353-3358; and Edna Tal-Elhasid and Hagit Meishar-Tal, "Models for Activities, Collaboration and Assessment in Wiki in Academic Courses," in Electronic Proceedings of the Eden 2007 Annual Conference, June 13-16, 2007, Naples.

12. Andri Ioannou and Anthony R. Artino Jr., "Wiki and Threaded Discussion for Online Collaborative Activities: Students' Perceptions and Use," Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, vol. 1, no. 1 (August 2009), pp. 97-106.

13. Fengfeng Ke and Alison Carr-Chellman, "Solitary Learner in Online Collaborative Learning: A Disappointing Experience?" Quarterly Review of Distance Education, vol. 7, no. 3 (Fall 2006), pp. 249-265.

14. Laura Zurita, "Learning in Multicultural Environments: Learners as Co-designers," paper presented at Networked Learning 2006, April 10-12, 2006, Lancaster, UK.

15. Susan Kinzie, "Interactive Web Pages Changing Class Participation," Washington Post, March 11, 2005, p. B01.

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wikify your course: designing and implementing a wiki for your learning environment

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Wikify Your Course: Designing and Implementing a Wiki for Your Learning Environment

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Wikis help engage students in their learning while providing social interaction with their peers in the learning process. A wiki assignment should enable students to work at the conceptual level of understanding on authentic projects where they can solve problems, discover relationships, discern patterns, and develop a deep understanding of content.

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Courtesy of d atchison, vimeo, 2020

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Teachers guide on the use of wikis in education.

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Teachers guide on the use of wikis in education.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Here are some platforms where you can start your wiki for free. They are among the best available for teachers :

1- Wikispaces :
This is a free wiki host providing community wiki spaces, visual page editing, and discussion areas. It is my favourite platform and it is the first one I would recommend you try for your class.

2- PBworks
This is another great wiki hosting platform that lets anyone sign up and create a new wiki but the free version is ad-supported.

Examples of Educational Wikis

1- How to Build an Educational Wiki

Webliography
Exemplary Classroom Wikispaces
Tips for Teaching Wikis
The Way of The Wiki
Cybrary Man Wiki Resources
Wikis Connecting Education
10 Best Practices for Using Wikis in Education
17 Interesting Ways to Use a Wiki in The Classroom
50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom

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Teachers Guide on The Use of Wikis in Education

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Here are some platforms where you can start your wiki for free. They are among the best available for teachers : 1- Wikispaces : This is a free wiki host providing community wiki spaces, visual page editing, and discussion areas. It is my favourite platform and it is the first one I would recommend you try for your class.

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WEBSITE: http://www.teachertube.com This is a basic tutorial on how to set up a basic wiki on WikiSpaces.

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I really love this idea of using a wiki to annotate poetry or writing. It enable students to discuss this collaboratively. This eliminates student fear as they can feel comfortable and share and not feel alone in their ideas.

It also allows all students to have a voice that breaks the classroom boundaries.

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SAMR- Design solution -Compare fast food burger to healthy variation

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SAMR- Design solution -Compare fast food burger to healthy variation

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Substitution
Students research recipes online as opposed to recipe books

Augmentation
Students can now transfer the recipe into a Work Plan with improved grammar, spelling and use online calculators for measurement conversions

Modification
Teacher creates a wiki for students to share their recommended recipe s as the design solution. Students interact collaborativly to assess pros and cons. Students vote on a design solution using a survey.

Redefinition
Students create the design solution eg sustainable recipe, video record the method, create an audio sensory analysis and comparison chart between the fast food burger and the healthy recipe.
They use an online survey  for a target audience to collect data and opinions.
Collate data in a spreadsheet.
Connect locally with Burger businesses and globally with celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver to share their findings and receive feedback on their design solution.

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* Online portfolio of students work
* Useful for resumes and employment to document skills, training , certifications
* Personal and creative to get to know your students and interests

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* Students could document their Certificate II in Hospitality, skills, Training, references, RTO information, video and images of functions and work experience

* Share resume for work experience in hospitality

* Display student portfolio in Fashion and Design

* Used for assessment tasks, links to resources and references, document design processes

* Link to students digital tools and apps such as YouTube, blogs, virtual classrooms

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Posted on Oct 22, 2018

Having a positive digital footprint is important for anyone old enough to be online. Young people will eventually find themselves applying for colleges, jobs, and other post-secondary schooling opportunities. One way for your middle and high school students to uphold a positive internet presence is by making a website. Here are five huge benefits students receive from the process of bulding a website.

Share a Modern Resume

Sharing a list of one's achievements on a sheet of paper created from a Microsoft Word template is so 20th-century. As your students fight to stake their claim on online real estate, it's important to show them that the web can be a place to share their best face. By showcasing academic accolades, extra-curricular activities, and volunteerism in a digital medium, potential schools and employers can see a student's technical expertise and creativity.

1. Learn a Language or Two. . .or More

Learning HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and other web designing computer languages gives students more skills to add to their digital resume. Web design is a hot field, and students with these skills are highly coveted by employers. By understanding web design basics prior to college studies, students will have a leg up on the competition. In addition, they can also find work freelancing before going full-time after their studies. CompuScholar's Web Design course teaches students how to create their own web pages with a curriculum that spans a whole school year.

2. Showcase Work on a Portfolio

A student-created website is the perfect place to showcase student artifacts:

writing

artwork

music compositions

photography

representations of physical or technological work

Displaying work online makes it more tangible-so much better than just stating it in a phrase on a hard copy resume. In addition to a resume, a portfolio is a place to share actual evidence of work completed. Building a portfolio is the first step to building a brand.

3. Build a Personalized Brand

Students should start building their own personal brand early. Buying a domain with one's first and last name, creating a logo, or even just sharing the best version of oneself online is an incredible way to start advertising for future schools and employers. Encourage your students to search themselves online often. What is the story that those who search them will see? Every article, image, and web site that comes up should present the best version of themselves. This starts with social media and their own personal website. Having conversations about what their brand will be and how your students want to showcase themselves online are important discussions to have before creating their website.

4. Start to Network

High school students may start to make connections through career academies, part-time jobs, and mentors. Having a website to share with potential colleagues can be incredibly valuable in establishing a virtual and professional presence. Even if students aren't sharing their website, new contacts may search students online to check out their background and digital presence. Websites can be linked in all professional and personal social media. Students should start sharing their professional portfolio broadly with anyone they may want to work with in the future.

5. Establish Skills That Transcend the Digital World

Building a website is not merely about learning technological skills and computer science. Web design is full of opportunities to be creative, focus on critical thinking, and solve problems. All of these skills are valuable in multiple career fields and walks of life.

The benefits of creating a website for students far exceed the obvious technical skills students have to learn in order to build their first digital masterpiece. In fact, creating a website can be the first step in maintaining a powerful and positive online presence for your students.

About the Author

Jen Schneider is an educator, learner, and writer in the Omaha, Nebraska area. Jen earned her B.A. in Journalism and Political Science and M.S. in Curriculum & Instruction. She is a middle school Language Arts teacher and PhD student at University of Nebraska-Lincoln studying innovative schools and instructional technology. Jen is passionate about teaching educators and students how to advance learning by using technology as a tool in the classroom. She believes in innovative instruction and learning goals driven by student learning, especially by using Genius Hour and project-based learning.

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5 Ways Students Benefit from Building Their Own Websites

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Posted on Oct 22, 2018 Having a positive digital footprint is important for anyone old enough to be online. Young people will eventually find themselves applying for colleges, jobs, and other post-secondary schooling opportunities. One way for your middle and high school students to uphold a positive internet presence is by making a website.