P7 Improving Writing with Weblogs Project – Final Thoughts
Comments(6) | Typically of an educational project, I started with clear ideas, changed them halfway through and didn’t end up with what I expected.
I’d become interested in blogging in the autumn of 2005 when I came across the Sandaig Otters site and reading some posts on the Masterclass forums.
Weblogs, or blogs as they’re more commonly known, are essentially just a list of entries in reverse chronological order, rather like a diary, which is available on the web. The strengths of a blog, compared to a website, are that entries (or posts as they are called) can be put up very quickly and that there is the opportunity for others to comment.
I thought that the ability to comment on pieces of writing could be valuable in the classroom. Blogging could offer an opportunity for children to put examples of their writing on the web and receive comments (hopefully constructive) which would encourage them to continue with, and improve, their writing.
I looked at a variety of different school blogs and one of the obvious problems was that it was quite difficult to find an audience for posts. There are so many sites out there that it is very difficult for bloggers to get regular comments. If, as I believed, comments were one of the most important features of blogging, this was a problem!
I tried out a few different blogging systems on our Authority webspace. All were free and generally easy to set up and use so I was happy that children and teachers would have no technical difficulties.
As I had no regular access to classes myself, I needed a project which would be attractive to teachers and would require no special skills of the participants. If different schools both posted work and commented, the burden of work would be shared. More importantly, this arrangement would provide an immediate audience who could respond to posts so we wouldn’t have to rely on ‘outside’ commentators.
Schools were contacted and Primary 7 classes were invited to take part. I asked for 3 schools to be involved over a 4 week period with the aim of finding whether pupils found the blogging software easy to use and motivating and whether teachers found the idea worthwhile.
In the end, 8 schools asked to participate. I visited them, discussed the idea with teachers and children and left clear written instructions on how to blog. The teacher controlled access and all posts and comments were moderated by me. This ensured that half completed work was no accidentally posted and that no mischievous comments appeared. As it turned out, hardly any moderation was required.
At the end of the 4 week period
- 44 pieces of writing were posted
- 169 comments were made by 92 different people
- the blogs were viewed 2211 times
The blogs can be found here.
I was very happy with the result. The comments were encouraging and the children found them motivating. Teachers were very positive about the experience and some children had begun their own personal blogs.
Here’s an example of a post:
Amy age 11
Haiku
Fuji erupting
Dribbling red spicy liquid
Flickering death sparks.
In normal circumstances, the largest audience for Amy’s work would probably have been her classmates, but, because of the blog, the audience was worldwide. Here is one of the comments she received:
Amy,
This is a lovely haiku. I especially like the last line, “Flickering death sparks.”
I immediately envisioned what a volcanic eruption would look like at night.Keep up the good work!
M.Deare
Memphis, Tennessee
It was clear that blogging was easy and motivating, but did it improve writing? Much of the work that was posted had been written before the project began so wasn’t influenced by the project. One aspect that did concern me was the lack of proofreading as several posts contained glaring errors. I decided to change the focus of the project and ask classes to concentrate on quality of writing.
Before the second phase began, I attended a Masterclass New Technologies course which gave me lots of new ideas about blogging and how it might be used in the classroom. The contacts made there have proved invaluable.
The software used for the blogs was changed to WordPress, one of the most popular blogging tools and revised advice was sent to schools. Unfortunately, only a couple of schools were able to continue with the project at this time of the term so posts and comments slowed down. Another school joined in after an outline of the project was presented at a seminar at SETT in Aberdeen 2006.
Unfortunately, this class found that there was no longer much of an audience as only a couple of schools remained in the project and they started complaining that they were posting but no-one was commenting. I posted a plea for comments on this blog and this was picked up and echoed on Ewan McIntosh’s popular blog . The comments then flooded in from all over the world. The class were delighted with the response and mapped where all their comments were coming from.
This class decided that blogging was good fun and would be good for their school. As they were about to leave for secondary school, they trained Primary 6 pupils and set up a blog of their own .
By the end of the second phase
- 144 pieces of writing were posted
- 554 comments were made by 209 different people
Despite all the positive outcomes, the aim to improve writing wasn’t achieved. In order to that, there would have to be a much more organised approach to encourage proofreading and give more guidance on how to structure constructive comments. I hope to pursue this, perhaps with secondary pupils.
So what was learned from this project?
- Blogging software is easy to set up and use.
- Children really enjoy receiving comments on their work from strangers.
- Time for blogging can easily be incorporated into the primary classroom.
- Posts and comments can be easily moderated.
- Blogging has the potential to motivate and encourage children’s writing.
A project with no costs, no special resources, which was enjoyed by all the participants and which developed new skills – what more could you want?
More information on the project can be found at
http://andywatson.edublogs.org/
Information on blogging and links to school blogs are in a MOODLE course at
http://www.abernet.org.uk/courses/
A list of Scottish education blogs can be found at
Hi Andy – this is a great rundown of how to work a good written blogging project. If it’s OK I would love to mention this in my talk at SETT on Creating Communities. Let me know if that’s OK or, indeed, if you wish to tell people yourself in person or by Skype.
Cheers!
–E
You’re welcome to use anything you want. I’ll be in the audience at Creating Communities cheering you on (or asking really difficult questions, depending on my mood!)
(This is the text of an article which will eventually appear on the Masterclass website.)
I worry about the sustainability of so many comments, and thus the sustainability of interest. And wonder about thinking of this the other way around—not creating a blog at all for a writing project, but posting comments on other people’s or class/school blogs?
Sure there’s management and tracking issues to solve, but there’s plenty of excitement in writing on other’s sites IMHO (as I’m doing and experiencing now
)
If, as I believe, comments on blogs do boost self-esteem, it follows that a lack of comments may be dispiriting. However, this doesn’t mean that everything that’s posted has to have a comment. In fact, too many comments may be ineffectual as they lose their force, like a teacher who is always telling the kids how brilliant they are.
Commenting on others’ work is worthwhile and can develop writing skills because the kids feel it is important to get things correct because there is a potentially large audience. But it’s not as exciting as posting a piece of your own work and receiving comments from around the world.
An obvious way of sustaining comments is for a class or group of classes to comment on each other’s work. In this way, the strengths of posting and commenting are exploited. There’s also the possibility of getting parents to comment – there are various issues here but it’s an avenue worth following I think. Another is to exchange comments with other schools, using contacts such as CommentzForKidz – http://scotedublogs.wikispaces.com/CommentsForKidz.
I’m afraid I don’t think kids would feel as excited by commenting alone as they do when blogging.
I guess it’s the balance that’s best. Posting and commenting, be that on one’s own site—commenting on a class mate’s writing, or some distant country’s class blog.
Speaking of different countries, that comments for kidz site is a great idea. I’d guess it’s open to Sassenachs and the Welsh?
)) Ah! Yes, I see Notts. I’ll see if I can add some more schools. Just going to ask, back in bit.
I’m talking about blogging and Creative Writing with S Grade students tomorrow at TeachMeet06 – I used a limited range of writers and commentors and was very pleased with the outcome.