Four teachers who are using a new Web publishing technology to motivate students, build online collaboration, and enhance learning opportunities share their stories in a special series scheduled to launch in late June on An Innovation Odyssey, a feature of the Intel® Innovation in Education Web site. Look for these stories in late June on "Day 300" through "Day 304." Weblogs, an increasingly popular form of Web publishing also known as blogs or blogging, offer an exciting new forum for online communication. By allowing for instant publishing and creating a space for dialog between writer and audience, weblogs are generating interest in fields ranging from journalism and world affairs to health news and medical breakthroughs. But this is still new territory for most educators. To discover how teachers are making use of this emerging technology, An Innovation Odyssey has interviewed four educators from different grade levels and geographic settings. As their stories reveal, weblogs offer a wide range of advantages in teaching and learning in the classroom. In a San Francisco, California, middle school, teacher Helen Turnbull is finding that weblogs allow her to differentiate instruction. She can deliver the help that one student needs "without it being obvious to anyone else," she explains. What's more, she finds students are motivated to write higher quality work when they know it will be posted to a Web site accessible to their peers. An elementary teacher in rural Ohio taught herself to set up weblogs when she realized how the technology would improve management of projects and also open new channels of communication with parents. A reading intervention specialist, Pam Pritchard says a weblog "is like having a blackboard, a filing cabinet that never gets full, and a communication system at your fingertips, anytime and anywhere." She has seen struggling readers try harder when they know their audio recordings are headed for the weblog. These are "meaningful moments of self-learning," she says. Finally, a high school journalism teacher in New Jersey and a technology specialist working with elementary students in Georgia explain how they have used weblogs to build an online community of learners. New Jersey teacher Will Richardson had his high school students act as writing coaches for fourth- and fifth-graders in Georgia, taught by Anne Davis. Richardson and Davis have found the experience to be powerful for students at both ends of the age spectrum. The series on weblogs will launch in late June. The stories will show, by example, how teachers can set up weblogs that help meet learning goals. Each story also includes links to examples of student and teacher weblogs. In addition, in the coming months Intel Innovation in Education will be creating new online resources for teachers who want to learn more about using weblogs. Educators interested in this emerging technology can watch for resources that will address how to use weblogs effectively in the classroom, where to find free space for hosting a site, and how to gain access to other useful resources. Watch for details on the Web site (www.intel.com/education), or subscribe to The Intel® Innovator for free updates.
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