Who Moderates Comments on Student Blogs?
"Best Practices" are Always Evolving
One thing that I find amazing about being on "the cutting edge" of technology in education is that there is no road map. How can you have tried and true best practices for things that have only been around for a short time, so short that most people aren't doing them yet?
I think one important reason for our school's success in this area is our willingness to be a learning organization. This is where the importance of reflection plays a big role, as well as the practice of making learning transparent. It is in this spirit that I have been experimenting with discovering best practices for student blogfolios.
I realize that because I have been involved in ed tech for a long time now, I may seem fearless when it comes to the online world. I do tend to err on the side of asking forgiveness instead of permission, and although I am cautious about what I post online, I am not filled with worry- not for myself or my students. When I look back over the last few years, I see that there is an almost constant cycle of reflection happening. It includes discussions with parents and colleagues, as well as the bigger global conversation taking place via blogs, twitter, etc. in which I make efforts to be a participant.
Recently I received an email from a parent who had a concern about having her child act as moderator for the comments on her blog. Every time I receive a question from a parent, it is an opportunity for me to articulate my reasoning behind the decisions I make.
"Just wanted some reassurance from you that the school has good spam filters. My child has been getting comments that are advertisements for products and is deleting them...I'd prefer it if the kids couldn't see the comments on their blogs until they were approved by the teacher."
I had the chance to speak with this parent, and we talked for a while about her concerns. It came out in our discussion that there was only one such spam comment, but nevertheless, the concern remained the same.
Analysis of the Situation:
First of all, we do use a spam filter called Askimet on every student blog. It seems to work quite well, and we have not had many problems with spam comments. In fact, we have had more incidences of the opposite problem, where real comments went into the spam filter. 
In addition, other administrators on the student blog (classroom teachers and myself) also receive comment notifications via email. I have been in the habit of scanning those, although lately I have slacked off a bit, as there have been so many comments. I know that some savvy students have changed some of their moderation settings themselves, as well as changing the admin email from my email to theirs, so I am not receiving emails from each and every comment left on every blog.
So far this year, with five classes blogging and participation in the Student Blogging Challenge, a quad-blogging project and wide sharing of student blogs, there has only been one inappropriate comment of which I am aware (+ the one spam comment mentioned in the email). This comment was from a student in the blogging challenge. I intercepted the comment before the recipient saw it and deleted it completely from her blog. I then spent approximately 2 weeks tracking the commenter's teacher. I finally got her email and contacted her. I know that I would want to be told if one of my students had left such a comment on another child's blog. Although this student was in China and probably thought that he was anonymous with what he said online (although he left his real name and email), I think it is important that students understand that teachers all over the world are looking out for them.
Should we put students in control?
Spam is an unfortunate fact of digital life. We must be able to recognize it and know how to deal appropriately with it (ignore, delete, never click on a link). Too many adults do not possess this awareness, and the consequences range from annoying to serious. In my conversation with the concerned parent, I learned that her child recognized the comment as spam and knew exactly what to do with it. The child explained to her mom that I had taught them to recognize spam and what to do (yay!). This reinforces, for me, the correctness of the decision to empower students with responsibility while carefully overseeing and guiding them. Parry Aftab, an expert in internet safety for teens, has a saying I really like: "The best filter is the one between their ears." The world of online interaction is not going away. I want our students to learn digital citizenship under our guidance.
If we are going to allow students online, we are exposing them to potential risks. We do everything we can to minimize those risks, but there is no filter that is totally foolproof. I compare it to letting your child ride in a car. There are dangers to riding in a car, yet the benefits outweigh the risks, so we do what we can to make the experience as safe as possible, and we focus on the benefit that is gained.
What do you think? Should students have administrative control over their blogs? Why or why not?
4th Grade Part of International Action Research
An International team of four classrooms partnered to do action research. They asked the questions: Does Blogging support and improve QUALITY student writing?
Our 4th graders, together with their teacher, Mrs. Teitelbaum, are part of this fabulous blogging adventure during the month of March 2012 .
- Team USA- mjgds.org/classrooms/4thgrade/
- Team Thailand- inside.isb.ac.th/rm204
- Team Czech Republic- blogs.isp.cz/grade3v/
- Team Switzerland- 4s2011.wordpress.com/
Support their efforts and visit their classroom blogs (with student blog links) and model quality comments for them. '
Another Student-Created eBook- A Week in 2nd Grade
In the course of our iPad explorations in 2nd grade, some students made the choice to read ebooks that were in the iPad library. One of those books was the butterfly book, written by the first graders. Second graders loved reading the text and looking at the illustrations and photos in this beautiful book. They were also inspired to create an ebook of their own.
Julia reading the 1st Grader's Butterfly Book
Julia, who loves looking at the daily agenda, suggested that it would be fun to write a book about a day in 2nd grade. After discussions with the class, we settled on the plan to collaboratively create a book detailing, "A Week in 2nd Grade."
The first step was a collaborative brainstorming session to decide the most important and interesting things to include in the book. It was decided that each student would be responsible for writing and illustrating (via a photo taken with the iPad) one page. After deciding what to include and assigning pages, students used a graphic organizer as a pre-write to brainstorm ideas for their topic.
The next step in the process was to write a paragraph using paper and pencil. Finally, students were ready to use the Book Creator app on the iPad to create their page. As students worked on various stages of the writing process, teachers met one-on-one with the students to help them edit their writing. Because this process was quite long, not every piece of writing was perfectly edited. We felt that it was important to actually finish the project and publish the book and teachers did not edit student work without the student's participation. The writing you see, therefore, is authentic 2nd grade work and may contain some errors in spelling or grammar.
If you own an iPad or iPhone, you can download the ePub file and directly drop it into your iTunes library. Once you sync your device with iTunes, you are able to read our ebook .
If you are reading this post on your iPad, simply click on the ePub file and choose to open in iBook.
Continuing to Learn with the iPad- Storytelling in Hebrew
5th Grade- Storykit- Creating a story in Hebrew
One of the Hebrew teachers, Morah Liat, approached me with an interest in having her students create a story book in the target language on the iPads.
We chose to test the free app Storykit with this project.
Students read a poem by Leah Goldberg called: 
(That’s Not Me). Based on the poem, students wrote their own story and created a storyboard how they could illustrate their story.
We had the Hebrew letters added to the iPad keyboard by going into: Settings> General> Keyboard> International Keyboards>Add New Keyboard> Choose Hebrew
Once the International keyboard is added, a globe appears on your keyboard. Tap the button to cycle through all the different keyboards you have installed.
Once the storyboards were finished, students were ready to work with the iPads. The app allowed users to create their own illustrations, import images from elsewhere or take photos with the built in iPad2 camera and insert them into their story. Students could also add audio recordings to their story.
I showed students how to go to Microsoft Office ClipArt, search for images and download or take a screenshot and edit the image.
Students also used each other to stage scenes from their story to take a photo.
Problems we found along the way:
- students could not re-order the pages of their story in order to imitate leafing/swiping through a book from “right to left” (opposite from the way we turn pages in books in English).
- students were not able to place punctuation at the end of a sentence, since the Hebrew keyboard in Storykit (maybe because it is an iPhone, not an iPad app) does not include a period.
Once the stories were completed, students
- shared (tap share button) their story
- emailed themselves the story link
- went to their emails to click on the generated URL
- took a screenshot of their story pages
- wrote a blog post about their experience
- inserted the story pages into their blog post
I will probably not use the Storykit again, since I want to be able to easily embed the stories on the student blogfolios, as well as export them into our school iBook library.
Take a look at some student samples.
Sarah’s Story
A blog post from Sarah, one of our 5th grade students:
Today in Hebrew class we made a story on an app called StoryKit. We made this on the IPads. My story is called
Sydney’s Story
Rachel’s Story
Transliteracy- QR Codes & Art
Transliteracy is defined on Wikipedia as
The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means “across; through”, so a transliterate person is one who is literate across multiple media.
Ryan Nadel, in an interview on Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, defines transliteracy even further:
“The most fundamental notion of transliteracy is the ability to adapt. It’s creating a literacy and fluidity between mediums that’s not tied to space or modality.”
I agree with Ryan: Transliteracy is closely related to “fluency“:
- the ability to know when to use one media over another
- the ability to move effortlessly between media
- the ability to comprehend, build upon, and remix different kind of media
- the ability to relate, communicate and connect via multiple forms of media
- moving between media feels: intuitive, unconscious and smooth
Let me share a transliterate learning opportunity with you that I created (Art, iPads, QR codes, Language Arts and Digital Storytelling) in collaboration with our Art teacher, Mrs. Gutterman and the 4th grade classroom teacher, Mrs. Teitelbaum?
During Art class, fourth graders adapted Vincent van Gogh’s chairs and placed things on and around them that were important to them.
In Language Arts, students wrote a script, explaining their choices of what they drew and why it was important to them.
We all gathered in the library to record their script as an audio file on the iPad. We used the AudioMemos app (free) to record. Students then emailed the wav file to me.
We created QR Codes (Quick Response) to be attached to the original art work.
Now anyone with a QR scanner on their Smartphone, iTouch or iPad walking by the art work, can scan and listen to the student artist’s audio reflection. The next step was to create a poster to catch the attention of the visitors and parents walking by and give a short explanation of what to do with the QR code
Watch out for all the 4th grade Art work to be exhibited with their corresponding QR codes in the lobby!
Working on iPad Fluency in First and Second Grade
We want our students to :
- use apps on the iPad to create, not just consume
- fluently pick apps that will serve a purpose
- fluently switch between apps, then insert, embed, share and disseminate their creations
We have to expose students to a variety of apps to help them gain skills in iPad Fluency
By fluency I mean the ability to:
- connect tasks effortless together (ex.creating and editing a video, then uploading, embedding and disseminating on several platforms)
- CREATE and then being able to COMMUNICATE- the ability to create and communicate your creation is one of the main characteristics of fluency
- record, edit and then publish a movie that automatically posts to my blog
- take an image…edit…then automatically post to my photo stream as well as embed into a blog post
- work within several apps, then remix content from each one by being able to import them from one app to another.
In the first few weeks after the iPad deployment, we are concentrating on allowing students to test and explore a variety of apps, as well as work on that fluency piece.
Here are a few examples of our lower elementary school students.
In first grade, students practiced their Hebrew letters in Doodle Buddy.
They then drew illustrations and learned about emailing the finished image to the teacher.
In second grade, we are helping students create an image, then saving it into the Photo Gallery (by an in-app function, via the built-in camera or taking a screenshot) and then edit and email that image to their teacher.
Second graders were learning to introduce themselves in Hebrew. We decided to create an eBook with each student contributing their own page.
The image can be created in a drawing app, such as Doodle Buddy, or being taken with the iPad’s built in camera, then imported into Doodle Buddy to write or type over it.
By adding an International keyboard to the iPad, we were able to easily switch between the English and Hebrew letters.
Here were the instructions for our students, which we modeled by mirroring the iPad display via projector:
- Take an image with the built-in camera
- Go to Photo Gallery and edit if needed
- Go to Doodle Buddy app by finding the app icon or by searching for app by name
- Import image from Photo Gallery as background
- Choose a marker, color, thickness and write your name in Hebrew on the image
- E-mail the image to your teacher
We are realizing that after a few run throughs of creating- saving- sending, our students are picking the sequence up easily. (The hardest part for these early elementary school students is to spell my name in the email correctly 
We are also making it a point to have students explore the apps we have loaded on our iPads. As we are discussing, at the beginning of class, WHAT we want to CREATE, we are asking for input from the students:
- What app would be best suited (any alternatives)?
- The sequence from creating to saving and then the best way to share it with others (email, publish, classroom blog, etc.)
It is crystallizing itself clearly, that the iPad lessons are building on each other. The best success, I have been able to observe, is when students had explored an app in one class, worked with the app to create, in another class and finally pulled the sequence together for a larger project by remixing, sharing and collaborating.
Proud to Present Butterfly iPad Book by our First Graders
If you have been following the 21st century blog, you read about our First Graders First iPad Encounters. We are so proud to share their final product with you: The iPad Butterfly Book.
Mrs. O'Neill writes:
The conversion of our classroom into a Monarch Butterfly nursery happened by chance. We discovered a caterpillar while taking a nature walk and decided to bring it into the classroom to observe. Since I have raised Monarchs before, I knew exactly what the caterpillar needed to thrive. The students were so excited about our one caterpillar friend that we kept checking the milkweed leaves for more caterpillars and a butterfly unit was born. We studied the life cycle and were privileged to see each stage (egg, caterpillars of various sizes, chrysalis, and even several butterflies emerging during class!) The children complied everything they discovered about Monarchs into this book so they could share it with you. We hope you enjoy our eBook.
If you own an iPad or iPhone, you can download the ePub file and directly drop them into your iTunes library. Once you sync your device with iTunes, you are able to read our butterfly book.
If you are reading this post on your iPad, simply click on the ePub link and choose to open in iBook.
Please leave us a comment where you are from and maybe other interesting facts about Monarch butterflies for us to learn.
iPad Exploration
After finally getting the 20 new iPads set up and ready to use (a major undertaking for which I take no credit-- read about it here), I am planning to embark on an explorative journey of how to best use these tools to transform learning in 2nd grade.
So, where to begin?
Blog-folios
Last year we began working with students in grades K, 5 and 8 to create digital portfolios. We used WordPress blogs (like the one you are reading now) as the platform for the portfolios. Portfolios are a digital collection of a student's best work with a reflective component. This type of reflective practice is new for most of our students and is a process which will take time. As we began the process, we realized that it was almost a tease giving students a versatile, customizable, blogging platform and then not allowing them to freely blog. So the "blog-folio" was created-- part blog, part reflective portfolio.
Portfolios give students a chance to develop metacognition, set goals and internalize what "good work" looks like. Blogs offer a platform for creativity, communication, connection and the practice of digital citizenship. "Blog-folios" are the best of both worlds- using a blogging platform to develop writing skills, provide opportunities to connect with an authentic audience and increase reflective practices. Instead of using the entire site as a portfolio, students will use the category "portfolio" to designate those selections that represent high-quality work and reflection.
Blogs are Transformative:
As educators, we are in the business of helping each child bloom into the flower that he or she is meant to be. The goal is to help students reach high academic standards while developing their unique selves, growing at their own rates and discovering their personal passions. Blogs are a space for sharing ideas in almost any format, a place for self-expression, connection, and reflection- literally a platform to explore, document and record the growth of the learner. The tool (blog) is transformative in that it allows instant publishing and the possibility of an authentic audience, as well as bringing in multimedia communication and creation. It is also transformative in that, unlike many school assignments or projects, blogging is a long-term "project" that incorporates many different "subjects" and skills.
Blogging challenge checklist
Part of the joy of blogging is knowing that someone is reading what you've written. All of our student blogs are open to receive comments, and all comments will be moderated (by the students) before being published on the blog. We invite you to read and comment on any of the 5th grade blogs listed here. The big idea is to engage students in the act of writing as communication. Please encourage students by responding to their content, not correcting their mistakes. By leaving a comment, you can model good writing skills. Know that the blog-folios are a work in progress and a long-term record of a student's growth. Each child's writing and thinking will show growth over the year(s).
A student's notes to himself about blog topics.
First Graders- First iPad Encounters
The iPads are finally set up and ready to go into the classrooms! It happened to be our first graders who were the first ones to get their hands on them!
Our first graders just finished a unit on butterflies. It was the perfect timing to work with them and create an ebook about the different stages of a butterfly and show their learning reflection as a culminating activity of that unit.
Students wrote a story, as a class, about the different stages of the butterfly. We shared their words with our Art teacher, Mrs. Gutterman, who is now working with our students to create the illustrations for the book.
The first time, I brought the iPads into the class, we spent time talking about the care and handle of the devices.
When picking the iPad up from the teacher we reminding them to
- carry the iPad with two hands to their desk
- set them down as quietly as possible
- don’t hold the iPad from the SmartCover
- don’t walk around the classroom with an iPad in your hand
- no pulling, showing or tugging on someone else’s iPad
It was important to also introduce “iPad” vocabulary to our first graders, so we would all be able to use a common language when instructing or asking questions. We introduced this first time the following lingo:
- Home button
- screen
- swiping
- sliding
- tap
- apps
- icons
- pinch in/ pinch out
- front camera
- back camera
The introduction was done with the whole class. We then split into groups. These groups rotated in and out of the classroom to go to Art to start working on their watercolor illustrations. The rest stayed with us in the classroom to become familiar with the iPad.
We projected the iPad to the screen at the front of the room to show them the two apps we would be “playing” with that day: iBooks, Doodle Buddy.
As we showed them a student created eBook , as an example, it was the perfect opportunity to examine some of the similarities (author, illustrator, text, images) and differences (spine, turning pages vs. swiping pages) between a traditional printed book and an eBook.
Each student then was free to read the eBooks we had pre-loaded on the iPad, and then move on to Doodle Buddy. They discovered quickly the Tic-Tac-Toe and Maze backgrounds as well as the stickers with attached sounds. All in all it was a great way for students to get comfortable with touching, swiping, sliding, drawing and overall handling of the iPad.
By the second encounter, students were ready to learn to use the built-in camera app of the iPad2. We had the entire class together for this session. We showed them the location of each little camera on he front and back of the device and helped them locate the camera app. There were lots of giggles when they learned how to switch between the front and back facing camera. They then could practice taking their own picture. Not an easy task, when keeping in mind to LOOK at the camera lens, instead of the button to shoot the picture.
We showed them WHERE to find the pictures that they took (Photo Album) and how to swipe through the images.
The following time I came to the first grade classroom, it was time to introduce them to the Book Creator app. This time the iPads were part of a center that students rotated through.
We reviewed how to find and open an app. I then showed them how to insert the image that they took of themselves the previous day. They then practiced resizing and moving the image.
During journal time, first graders had written a short reflection about what they had learned about butterflies during their unit of study. They also included a sentence how they felt about it. They brought their (paper) journal to the table and learned how to bring up the iPad keyboard and to type their text.
A hush fell over the center as all the students were busy :
- sounding words out
- finding the letters on the keyboard
- inserting spaces
- learning that the cursor will automatically advance to the next line, if they ran out of space
- being amazed that the iPad will capitalize the first word after a period automatically, etc.
I kept a student as a “helper” from a previous center rotation when a new student rotated into the center in order to help me with pointing out the insert image or text icons or location of the space bar or delete button.
Looking back at these three “First Encounters with the iPad” sessions with our first graders, I am excited and thrilled. I can “feel” the potential, the engagement and motivation of the students. I can see how the devices will become a tool to bring instant information, growing collaboration, and creativity to the classroom.
Alan November’s powerful words on the motivating and empowering factor of “Leaving a Legacy“, in regards to student learning, are ringing in my ears. We will be sharing the iPads among ALL of our students (K-8). I can see how we can develop a cross grade level and cross subject area support center, media center, and library FOR and BY our students. My hope is that students will take ownership of these iPads to contribute their best work, knowing that they will be sharing it with the rest of the school.
The work students are doing with their “Butterfly Book”, will not only be seen by their current teacher and their parents, but will be part of research and background information for upcoming students in years to come.
Stay tuned as we will be sharing the final ePub version of the butterfly book for you to download to your own iPad, iPhone or Kindle.
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