Blogs at Penn State Community

Using the Blogs at Penn State System in the Classroom

Instructors can implement the Blogs at Penn State system in the classroom for many different uses.

Portfolios
Instructors can task students with creating online portfolios to showcase their work and achievements throughout the course or program. Students can create pages for assignments, resumes, projects, notes, and reflection—all in the blogs program.

Group Collaboration
Students can be placed into groups and then use the blogs space to create assignments while collaborating with each other.

Class Notes Pages
Instructors can post course notes or “main feature” notes onto a blog site where students can leave comments, questions, etc. The instructor or other students can then leave answers and/or additional comments.

Student Notes
Instructors can suggest that students use their blog space to keep a running log of course notes or highlights for the student to return to come exam time. The notes can also be helpful for projects as all the information is stored neatly in one place.

Student Reflection Space
Instructors can task students with creating a reflection page in their blogs system to post thoughts on specific class days, overall course thoughts, and anything that they want to think more about. This space can be used for one specific class, or for many as the students move through their entire program during the years they are enrolled at Penn State.

Online Assignment Posting and Peer Reviews
Students can post assignments straight to their blog space. A new page can be created for each assignment and, by leaving commenting turned on, other students can complete peer reviews. Good assignments for this type of activity are those where students share links to other sites, journals, etc. for other students to search.

Media Sharing
The blogs system makes sharing media such as podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. extremely easy. Students just create a post, attach or embed the file, and publish.

Instructor Blogs vs. Student Blogs

The Blogs at Penn State system can used by both instructors to pass on information and by students either as a discussion board or as a personal journal.

Examples of instructor blogs can be seen on the About page. Instructor blogs can allow students to access course resources and discussion as needed.

Feeding Blog Headlines into ANGEL

If you are using your blog to post announcements, you can feed them into ANGEL if you desire.

Comments Settings

The Blogs at Penn State allow anyone including students and people from outside the university to post comments. Currently there are two settings – Anonymous (anyone can comment, but owner pre-approves all comments) and Webaccess (Penn State only, but each user must first create a blog).

Please read the comment settings documentation for more information.

Note: You can also point students to instructions for How to Leave a Comment.

Student Blog Options

1. One option is for students to each have their own blogs. The benefit to this is that students can create posts on any topic, but instructors and students will have to visit multiple blogs.
2. One option is for the instructor to create a single course blog and to have students submit comments to a blog. The benefit to this is that all discussion is within one space, but students will have more difficulty starting new topics.

Remind Students that Blogs are Public

Whichever option you choose, remind students that anything they write is viewable by the public and searchable by Google. They should take care in how they present themselves since anyone from future employers to parents could see their blogs.

Should Students Have their Own Blogs?

Many instructors agree that blogging provides some unique opportunities for students including:

• The opportunity to reflect on course content
• Establish an online portfolio presence
• Develop writing skills
• Post files

However it should be noted that the Blogs at Penn State are set to be viewable by the public. For some courses, it may be acceptable for student blogs to be accessible by the public (e.g. academic reports or observations on non-controversial topics). In this case, the Blogs at Penn State may be the tool for you.

In other cases, confidentiality may be an issue, especially when discussion topics may be sensitive. When confidentiality is an issue, a password-protected solution such as the ANGEL Discussion Forum may be a better option for now.

How Students Create Individual Blogs

Students can create a blog account by logging into http://blogs.psu.edu. They will be asked to Activate Personal Web Space if they have not already done so.
Note: Please allow three business days for Personal Web Space to become active. Blog assignments should probably begin after the first week of class.

Pointing Students to Documentation

Don't forget to provide documentation to students. User manuals are available at http://blogger.psu.edu/gethelp.

Establishing Blog Writing Guidelines

Although blogging is an exciting new medium, students may not be familiar with how to approach a blog in an academic setting. Unless you're prepared for any topic (including week-end parties), it is usually recommended that some guidelines be presented to students so they know what kind of work you are expecting.

1. List topic parameters for students.
2. Suggest students avoid writing anything they don't want a future employer (or their parents) to read. The Blogs at Penn State are currently viewable to the public.
3. Suggest post lengths and tone. Do you want blogs to be semi-formal reflections, professional news stories or formal research notes?
4. If students are commenting on posts from other classmates, then they should avoid personal attacks.
5. If you want each student to post, then make a certain number of posts required. Similarly, if you want them to post comments, then make a certain of number of comments required.
6. Don't grade within the blog - many blogs, including Blogs at Penn State, may be viewable by the public, so grading information must be kept confidential as always.
7. If topics are sensitive, allow students to post in a private space. ANGEL bulletin boards are still a good option for that.
8. Most users use correct punctuation and grammar on blogs, but it doesn't hurt to remind students to use it.
9. Point students to Blog Writing Tips.

Student Podcasts

Students can post podcast audio files within the Blogs at Penn State. See the Podcast page for more details.

Monitoring Multiple Blogs

The best way to monitor multiple student blogs is to subscribe to eacg blog newsfeed within a newsreader, then place the feeds into folders.

See the Subscribe to Blog Feeds page for more details.

Accessibility

The Blogs at Penn State create fairly accessible output, but if you have a student in your class with disabilities, then you may need to make a few simple adjustments in your blogging strategy. See the Accessibility Page for tips and avice.

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