Kid Blogs and Student Led On-Line Book Clubs

Earlier this fall I was talking about deciding on the best forum for my students' on-line book reviews. While I ended up choosing Google Sites, I am thinking that Kid Blogs may have actually been a better fit, at least as an initial introduction to on-line book reviews and reflections of learning. While younger students are still getting used to blogging I have realized that it can be quite time consuming for basic posts and I have not been able to integrate in many of the features that Kid Blogs does not have and that I saw as a reason to choose Google Sites over Kid Blogs.

However, with experience I am seeing how Kid Blogs would be an excellent introduction to blogging and probably does have everything I need, especially for 6th and 7th graders. With Google Sites, even though the announcement page works as a micro-blog, I don't like how all users are able to edit posts, rather than just being able to post a comment (one difference between wikis and blogs).

When I started to do my first multi-age on-line book club of the year, I decided to have students do it on Kid Blogs. While we did on-line book clubs last year, this was different because I decided to have 8th graders lead the book club discussions. In partners the 8th graders did a post for each discussion day and the 6th and 7th graders added comments to discuss with their group. It has been going very smoothly. As I had known from before, it was so easy to set up and the students were quickly able to transition to using Kid Blogs since they were already familiar with posting and writing comments.

For now, I would recommend Kid Blogs vs. Google Site and re-evaluate when it seems like students are ready for more than Kid Blogs has to offer. This will change year to year as students arrive at my classroom with more previous experience with technology. Earlier this year our director and a couple of teachers wanted to do some book blogging with 2nd and 3rd graders, so I helped them set up a Kid Blog, and they have loved it. Once those students are 6th graders, they will already have a foundation in blogging and may be ready for a more advanced format - or not. I guess I will just wait and see each year, considering which technology tools are available and which are the best match for the students. Always so much to experiment and explore with educational technology!