Kidblog
Description:
Kidblog is a safe and user-friendly tool that allows students to share their learning in a digital space and also provides opportunities for collaboration and connections with fellow classmates or other students outside the walls of their classroom. This tool also provides students with the means to create engaging and interactive literary pieces that integrate multiple pieces of digital media into their writing. In addition, the comment feature also encourages meaningful feedback from classmates and initiates authentic discussions between students.
After the creation of an account, teachers will need to create individual accounts for each student in their classrooms, which eliminates the issues of students needing to sign-up for accounts. Once accounts have been created, students can login to the classroom Kidblog by selecting their name and entering the password created by their teacher. This creates a safe and private space as only students within your classroom can view or comment on work that has been published on your Kidblog. With this being said, as a teacher, you also have the option to make student posts visible to specific classrooms, or the public, depending on the privacy needs within your classroom. While this is definitely one of the best options out there for student blogging, it is unfortunately no longer a free resource. With that being said, when an account is activated, you have the ability to create multiple classroom blogs on one account. This means that multiple teachers could share one account and create separate classroom blogs, which would make using this tool relatively inexpensive.
One thing to keep in mind when using this tool is that the Terms and Conditions for Kiblog mandate the students under the age of 13 require parental consent in order to use their blogs. If this applies to students in your classroom, you will need to send a permission letter home for parents to sign. Luckily our division has created such a form which can be accessed here, or on our division website.
Utilization:
Here are some practical ways to use Kidblog in your classroom:
Digital Book Clubs: If you are teaching a unit that is utilizing a book club, you can have students respond to their books through digital blog posts. This is incredibly useful not only for collaboration within your own class, but it allows you to connect other classrooms and students who are also reading the same books.
Inquiry Project Updates: If your students are working on inquiry project such as Genius Hour or Science Fair, Kidblog can be a useful tool for students to record their learning journey. It is also particularly beneficial for student self-reflection on their project goals.
Digital Responses: Instead of the typical paper or OneNote responses, students can respond on their Kidblog with the ability to demonstrate their learning using various forms of digital multimedia to support their answers.
Kidblog is a safe and user-friendly tool that allows students to share their learning in a digital space and also provides opportunities for collaboration and connections with fellow classmates or other students outside the walls of their classroom. This tool also provides students with the means to create engaging and interactive literary pieces that integrate multiple pieces of digital media into their writing. In addition, the comment feature also encourages meaningful feedback from classmates and initiates authentic discussions between students.
After the creation of an account, teachers will need to create individual accounts for each student in their classrooms, which eliminates the issues of students needing to sign-up for accounts. Once accounts have been created, students can login to the classroom Kidblog by selecting their name and entering the password created by their teacher. This creates a safe and private space as only students within your classroom can view or comment on work that has been published on your Kidblog. With this being said, as a teacher, you also have the option to make student posts visible to specific classrooms, or the public, depending on the privacy needs within your classroom. While this is definitely one of the best options out there for student blogging, it is unfortunately no longer a free resource. With that being said, when an account is activated, you have the ability to create multiple classroom blogs on one account. This means that multiple teachers could share one account and create separate classroom blogs, which would make using this tool relatively inexpensive.
One thing to keep in mind when using this tool is that the Terms and Conditions for Kiblog mandate the students under the age of 13 require parental consent in order to use their blogs. If this applies to students in your classroom, you will need to send a permission letter home for parents to sign. Luckily our division has created such a form which can be accessed here, or on our division website.
Utilization:
Here are some practical ways to use Kidblog in your classroom:
Digital Book Clubs: If you are teaching a unit that is utilizing a book club, you can have students respond to their books through digital blog posts. This is incredibly useful not only for collaboration within your own class, but it allows you to connect other classrooms and students who are also reading the same books.
Inquiry Project Updates: If your students are working on inquiry project such as Genius Hour or Science Fair, Kidblog can be a useful tool for students to record their learning journey. It is also particularly beneficial for student self-reflection on their project goals.
Digital Responses: Instead of the typical paper or OneNote responses, students can respond on their Kidblog with the ability to demonstrate their learning using various forms of digital multimedia to support their answers.
Student Work Samples:
Digital Book Club:
Digital Book Club Comment:
Inquiry Project Update: Genius Hour
Digital Responses: Volunteer Experience
Benefits:
Kidblog is beneficial tool for use within classrooms for a plethora of reasons. As mentioned earlier, this tool allows you to transform traditional writing assignments into interactive pieces where students are able to connect various forms of multimedia into their responses. The ability to connect and comment with other students is another major benefit as students are able to provide and utilize feedback to help improve their own written expression, as well as their classmates. The ability to comment utilizing the "3 C's and a Q Model (Compliment, Comment, Connection & Question) also invites meaningful feedback between students and naturally leads to engaging discussions within your classroom. See below for an example of commenting between students: