Video blogging is a great way for English teachers to bring modern and fun technology into the secondary classroom…

1st Why? Teens love online videos. They are on countless websites, including the ever popular Facebook, MySpace, and Perez Hilton.com. Moreover, many teens even have their own Youtube channels or video blog website.

2nd Why? Imagine walking into your English classroom at 7:25AM and looking up at the board only to feel bored by some lame journal writing assignment, written in chalk. This is not new or exciting, and you, the student, are unmotivated and unengaged while partaking in this “old school” assignment. However, if you were to enter this same English classroom but, instead, asked to “read” a video blog entry of a newsclip for a controversial current event, a movie trailer for a novel turned Hollywood film, or even your own professor’s face talking to you in his or her cameo teacher persona (while real-life teacher takes attendance), I bet you’d be a little more willing to open your eyes.

Video blogging can be used not only to introduce a topic for journal writing or class discussion, but it is also just a great way to communicate with students. Teachers can upload or create “book trailers” to spark student interest in novels. Moreover, teachers can use video blogging as a study-aid or enrichment feature. Teachers can communicate directly to students through a webcam recorded video to further explain class objectives. If the computer resources are available, students can comment directly to the blog.

Teachers First gives step-by-step and user-friendly directions to create a blog.

Teacher first recommends Edublog.org. EduBlogs is a site specifically for teachers, students, librarians, researchers, professors, administrators, corporate trainers and anyone else involved in education. Edublogs are completely free, and come with 20MB of free upload space as well as great features. Using Edublogs is best in the classroom if you want to do a class blog. The directions on the website are step-by-step. There are even video tutorials on the website.

Edublogs have been customised so that users can embed almost any HTML code into posts and text widgets. This means most javascript, iframes and object code can be added e.g. videos, google calendars, vokis, Voicethreads, ebooks, widgets. This is a link (courtesy of EduBlogger Sue Waters) to step-by-step instructions, including a visual.

If you create your own video, you can upload it directly to your blog or your video channel (if you have one) on a site like YouTube or TeacherTube.

A popular Virginia Tech professor uses video blogging as a supplemental form of teaching to better explain current events in his World Regions class of over 2,000 students. (My inspiration for bringing this technology module into the English classroom)

http://www.plaidavenger.com/

“Welcome to the web blog pages of seventh grade English. Here you will find dialog on independent reading books, classroom literature (The Miracle Worker, The Outsiders, A Midsummer’s Night Dream) poetry, creative writing, and general reflections of the world around us. We are a dynamic, talented, creative group of twelve and thirteen year old students who love music, play musical instruments, and are involved in sports.

Please join our discussions and contribute your thoughts as we write out loud.”

http://writeoutloud.edublogs.org/

This is a 6^th grade English class blog. Each student also has their own blog to write in like a journal. The teacher posts a mix of videos, text, images.

Note from the teacher: “There are several student outcomes targeted by use of this site. Students will learn to be safe and responsible social networkers. They will understand intellectual property and copyright issues. Students will have the opportunity to write real and relevant content which is viewed by an authentic audience. The content may be original thoughts or stories, comments in response to peers or response to reflection questions posted by teachers as blog entries or threaded discussions. RSS News feed articles may also be used for inspiration!

Parents and teachers, be sure to check in often to see how your students are progressing in their thinking and writing.”

http://areallydifferentplace.org/

A Classroom video blog is a fun and exciting way to engage students/bring useful technology into the classroom.

Better communication to students. Students are more likely to connect to a lesson if they are stimulated through a short and relative video mixed with classroom interaction.

Better communication to parents. By having a classroom video blog, parents can see what their students are learning. They can also get a feel for the personality of their child’s teacher. Teacher’s can even directly address parents through their video blog. Video blogs open classroom doors.

Technology access in the classroom is ideal. A classroom computer and a video projector is best for using video blogging in the classroom, but video blogs can be accessed by students through individual computers in a computer lab or at home.

Technology access in the classroom is ideal. A classroom computer and a video projector is best for using video blogging in the classroom, but video blogs can be accessed by students through individual computers in a computer lab or at home.

TeacherTube is a video sharing website similar to, and based on, YouTube. It is designed to allow those in the educational industry, particularly teachers, to share educational resources. The site contains a mixture of classroom teaching resources and others designed to aid teacher training. A number of students have also uploaded videos that they have made as part of K-12 and college courses. As of July 2008, the website contained over 26,000 videos. It has found favor with educators for whom YouTube content is blocked by content filtering systems.

EduBlogs.org: 10 Ways to Use Your EduBlogs to Teach.