One of the wonderful things about using web tools for classroom collaboration is that it often makes your life a tiny bit less paperless AND it plays into your students' growing interest and understanding of how to use the Internet to communicate. We all know that outside of school many of our kiddos chat online, e-mail, and social network, whether they are of age to do so or not. And although there are steps you can take to make sure parents and students know what's safe and appropriate, there's no stopping the access your students have once they leave your classroom. That's why it's good - almost necessary - to give students web tools to display and communicate what they know and what they need to say so they learn the proper way to communicate online - for learning and social purposes.
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As the teacher you can create topic blog posts for students to respond to - I usually make these anything from introducing yourself to the class to current events - and then (my favorite) you can create assignment blogs! This is where you create an assignment for students to respond to under your original post. Students can work on it and come back to it, checking the finished assignment button when they have completed their post. As the teacher you can see who is still working, who has finished, and who hasn't even started yet (Grrr!). I've made my assignment blogs anything from listing the factors of a selected number, to researching a volcano, to creative writing prompts. Each student automatically gets their own blog page when you create their accounts as well. You can set the purpose for this or encourage your students to create their own blogs about things that interest them - a great way to get your cherubs to WANT to write! You also get your own teacher blog page as well to keep the class informed about whatever you'd like.
What ClassChatter lacks in "pretty" - there's no changing the colors, theme, or overall look - it makes up 110% in functionality. In a way, it's good the students (and the teacher for that matter) can't really mess with the appearance because it makes you focus on the content over the bells and whistles. My class has always been so into "we have a blog" that they've never brought up what it looks like. Oh, you will see some advertisements to upgrade to ClassChatterLive, but the free version provides you with plenty to get your class blogging safely and purposefully. Check it out and consider setting up your account for next year!
http://www.classchatter.com/
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