Course Syllabus

 

Blogging for Reflection in Blogger

 Course Author: Kelli Kelsoe

E-mail: kelsoek@castleberryisd.net

 Twitter: @kelsoek

---

This training will educate teachers on the the basics of blogging and the positive impact it can have on student achievement through reflection. 

Environment and Materials

Teachers must have a professional Google+ account.

Participant Resources

• Laptop or iPad with Internet Access
• Login to Canvas
• Access to Google

Purpose

Based on the BrightBytes survey, teachers struggle to incorporate the 4C’s (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, & creativity) into daily lesson activities. Additionally, the survey indicated that many teachers spend less than three hours a year discussing digital citizenship with their students. One teaching strategy that nurtures the incorporation of the 4c’s and naturally offers a platform to discuss digital citizenship is blogging. However, teachers have limited knowledge of how to effectively use blogging for professional use and/or as an educational tool with their students. As teachers begin to transform lessons, they need a portal to share with other teachers how they have implemented these new strategies. Additionally, with the new T-Tess appraisal system, teachers need to be able to reflect on their implementation, refine it, and then try the strategy again. Through the use of blogs, both teachers and students are given a voice in their learning journey. Teachers can share teaching experiences, reflect on the implementation of new teaching strategies, and showcase the successes that are occurring in their classroom. Furthermore, students can share new knowledge, reflect on newly learned concepts, collaborate, and display final projects within their blogs.

Format

 

This course is a competency-based course, which requires implementation and reflection of learned strategies. The format will be delivered in two parts: online modules and reflection of implementation. The first part of the training will be online. Participants will be given a three-day window to complete the online modules. The electronic resources will be made available through Canvas, the district’s learning management system (LMS). The content will guide the participant through the learning process of creating and maintaining blogs. The information in the modules will be available for reference after the initial phase of the training.

Goals and Objectives

1. Learner will be able to use a professional blog for communication and reflection.
1. Learner will understand why blogging is an essential skill for 21st Century teachers and administrators.
2. Learner will create a professional blog.
3. Learner will customize their blog.
4. Learner will understand the importance of using tags to organize posts.
5. Learner will follow blogs of other professionals and learn how to use comments to provide feedback to fellow bloggers.
2. Learner will be able to incorporate blogs into the learning environment.
1. Learner will investigate how to integrate digital citizenship concepts into blogging lesson activities. 
2. Learner will write a blog post reflecting on a technology infused lesson that the learner has taught.
3. Learner will investigate how student blogs can be used for students to reflect on their learning.
4. Learner will create a plan on how student blogging will be incorporated into their lesson activities.
5. Learner will reflect on how blogging can benefit them as well as their students.
6. Learner will design a lesson activity to be used within the first six weeks of school that incorporates student blogging.

Assessment

Performance assessments based on assignment and discussion rubrics will be used throughout the course to make sure the user understands each major concept as it is presented to them. The learner will transfer what was learned in the session to an applicable blended learning activity for their classroom and share this activity with others in the course through a final reflection discussion thread.

Module 1 – Assignment Rubric

Module 2 – Discussion Rubric

Module 3 – Discussion Rubric

Module 4 – Assignment Rubric

Module 5 – Discussion Rubric

Module 6 – Assignment Rubric

Module 7 – Discussion Rubric

Module 8 – Discussion Rubric

Module 9 – Reflection Rubrics, Google Form Course Evaluation

 

 

Modules

Modules	Task Description	How Assessed	Points
Module 1 Why Blog	Investigate why blogging is essential for educators	Assignment - Rubric details criteria	100 pts
Module 2 Craft and Bling Your Blog	Create a blog using Blogger	Discussion to share link to blog	100 pts
Module 3 Tag (Label) Your Posts	Investigate best practices of using labels	Discussion to share labels you will use - Rubric details criteria for discussion reply.	100 pts
Module 4 Post It Up	Create and publish your first post	Assignment to submit link to blog post - Rubric details criteria for blog post.	100 pts
Module 5 Be a Follower	Follow other bloggers to increase your PLN	Discussion to share a comment made on a blog you found to follow - Rubric details criteria for the comment.	100 pts
Module 6 Appropriate Online Behavior	Investigate how to teach students what appropriate online behavior looks like and then reflect on what was learned in a blog post	Assignment to submit link to blog post - Rubric details criteria for blog post.	100 pts
Module 7 Foster Student Reflection	Investigate how blogging can be used as a learning tool and how student commenting can enhance the quality of student reflections on learning	Discussion to share how you can use student blogging to enhance learning. Rubric details criteria for blog post.	100 pts
Module 8 Implementation of Student Blogs	Create a lesson activity that incorporates student blogging. The activity will also include a component that builds in digital citizenship skills.	Discussion detailing the lesson that has been created. Rubric details criteria for the reply.	100 pts
Module 9 Inspired to Blog - Reflection and Evaluation	Reflect on all that was learned about blogging through a course discussion thread. Also complete the course evaluation form.	Reflection will be posted in a course discussion thread. Rubric details the criteria for the reply.	100 pts

 

Course Evaluation

A quick instructor feedback form will be completed at the conclusion of the lesson. If the teachers respond with mostly positive feedback, then the course author and instructor will know the instructional design was effective.  

Timeframe 

This online course is a competency-based, self-paced course to be completed over a three day period with implementation of learned instructional strategies during the first six weeks of school.