Thursday, August 25, 2005

Academic Blogging 101 Everyone seems to be gearing up for school. We continue to receive lots of interest in using Manila for "academic blogging" - this covers everything from student writing projects to faculty blogs. I also think there is a growing awareness of just how useful this kind of technology can be in the classroom for both students and teachers. I asked a teacher why she was using Manila in the classroom. Her response was, "because I only have time to say it once. Posting it to the website is the easiest way of doing just that - its also great because the students can use the discussion boards to answer each others questions. It saves time and it helps them learn to work together." A teacher with a Manila site can post curriculum, announcements, host discussions through the discussion group, as well as use Manila departments (need link) for special projects or assignments. Individual Sites can also be created for writing projects. Where each student may have a blog or be working with peers on a writing project, its important that access be restricted to site members and that work be "approved" before its released to the class in general. This notion of protecting the sensitivity of budding authors is becoming increasingly important. This is easily done in Manila. You simply create accounts where the students are "contributing editors." This requires the teacher, as a Managing Editor, to approve posts before they can show up on the main site. Manila is a great alternative as schools become more and more reluctant to recommend students use free sites to post their material. Go to any of the advertising supported free blogging sites, pick a blog, and then click the "next blog" button a couple of times to see what I mean. It can be scary and it demonstrates the need for a system capable of giving kids the ability to explore their writing skills in a more protected environment. 2:04:17 PM

© Copyright 2005 Scott Young.