This school year, a few of our elementary teachers ventured into the world of blogging with their
students. They have been using their class blog to have students demonstrate how to do a math problem, explain what they know about a specific topic, and share their projects (artwork, tech projects, etc.). These teachers have been using Kidblog as it was the only tool we had available at the time. However, this fall, we purchased the app Easy Blogger Jr. (now referred to as Blogger Jr.) for the primary grades. This tool allows students who can't type or are slow typists to post photos with an audio recording and videos. So a Kindergarten student could collect a group of items starting with the letter for the week, take a photo, and record themselves saying the letter and identifying each item. Blogger Jr. is a good tool for allowing young students to experience the world of blogging.
Blogger Jr. connects to Blogger for posting your student's photos, videos and typing (should your students be ready to venture into the world of typing). As a result, you will need to do some prep work setting up a blog and activating a YouTube account for the student videos. Fortunately, you can use your school email account to activate YouTube and set-up Blogger. If you have never accessed the YouTube channel associated to your school email, they you will need to follow the instructions on this website -
Creating a Google/Gmail and Activating YouTube. If you are using a school email account, then
begin with step #4.
Once you have your YouTube account activated, you are ready to set-up your class blog in Blogger. The following video (click the link below the image) will walk you through setting up your class blog where students will post via Blogger Jr. It will also show you how to add students to in the Blogger Jr. app. Adding students into the Blogger Jr. app becomes the one time consuming task of the whole process. You must set-up the app on each device so it connects to your class blog and you have added the student or students who will be using Blogger Jr. on that device.
Prior to setting up the Blogger Jr. app, you might want to take a photo of the student(s) who will be added on the device. For example, if Susan and Marcus are going to use iPod #1 for completing their blog posts, then I would use that iPod to take a photo of each student. When I add them to Blogger Jr., I will put in their first name and photo. This allows them to see their photo on the login screen of Blogger Jr. This student photo is not posted out on the class blog, it is only for the use of the Blogger Jr. app on that one device.
Before students begin blogging, you will want to cover the basics of blogging and any rules that you would like them to follow. This might include how to use the app, not blogging unless the teacher has asked you to, not using their name in a post, don't say anything hurtful or untrue, etc. I'm not as artsy as my elementary teachers, but you might create your own poster with the class blogging rules as a reminder for your students.
So, you're all set-up with Blogger Jr., now how can you use this tool with students? Here's a list of things students could blog about:
- Photo of their artwork
- Something new you learned today
- Your class pet
- Math problems using manipulatives
- Counting Practice
- Book Reviews
- Reading practice
- Making patterns
- Tell what you know about a specific topic
Needing some additional assistance with Blogger Jr? Here are some quick links to their support resources:
Tackk
