This past term, my students and I used a new blogging platform called 21Classes. One of its most appealing features is the fact that, as a community, our class had its own blog portal – one communal page that displays all the most recent posts and comments. This home page is a kind of aggregator which can be set to display static information posted by the teacher as well as non-static items such as the following:
We did not use all of the above but the ones that we did use helped in two significant ways. First of all, they made it easier to navigate around the online community by displaying links to all student blogs and to the most frequently discussed entries. Secondly, they also helped create a sense of community among the students by making all contributions (posts, comments, photos) clearly visible. It helped the students see the global progress of the community and their own place within it.
One of the most valuable features of this platform, however, turned out to be the ability to personalize the look of each individual blog.
For the very first time since I started using blogs in my classes (over three years ago), the platform I chose allowed my students to customize the look of their individual blogs. The software I used before (Manila, LifeType) allowed users to change the themes (I had to upload them first in order to make them available to my students) but did not give my students the freedom to personalize any of the specific aspects of each theme, such as the blog header, the background, or the colour and size of the font.
Unlike the other software we used in the past, 21classes allows every blogger to modify the background, the header, and the colour and size of all fonts – practically every little detail of one’s blog. The students can also choose from a variety of different widgets that can be embedded in the blog’s side panels (Calendar, About Me, My Favourite Blogs, Most Recent Comments, etc.).
So What?
As administrator of our 21classes.com portal, I was able to give my students the opportunity to pick a theme and then modify it. At the beginning of the term, when I gave them one class to get to know the community and the software, the students used it to learn how to modify their blogs. These are some of the questions and conversations that I overheard and jotted down:
How do you change the title?
You mean the header?
Yeah. That top banner.How did you change your background to yellow?
You can upload a picture, too. See?Can you change the size of the font?
Where?
In my title.
Sure. You can change the colours, too. Just pick a theme and then click on it. That opens a new page … here I’ll show you.Look at …’s blog. She changed the borders. How do you do that?
In other words, they spent one hour and then also some time at home learning how to personalize their blogs. Most of them kept the same theme and modifications throughout the term. Some made minor changes on a regular basis.
Why is this important? I believe that the effort they had put forth to personalize their spaces contributed greatly to their sense of ownership and involvement as writers. Initially, I was concerned that this would lead to an undue preoccupation with the visual appeal of their blogs and distract them from the focus of our blogging community – writing and research. It didn’t. The students seemed aware of the fact that the visual appeal of the blog, no matter how inspiring, would not ensure readership. They knew that conversations emerge from interactions with and about texts.
The ability to create a virtual space that is uniquely one’s own turned out to be much more important than I had anticipated. It helped the students define themselves as individuals, not pupils who use a teacher-sanctioned tool to post work. When I compare student blogs from two years ago or from last year to the personalized blogs that the students created with 21Classes, I see a collection of individuals, not a classroom. I see evidence of personal engagement but no evidence of an institutional setting. The uniformity that the other platforms forced upon us was gone and what emerged was a creative and engaging mosaic. Take a look:
Some of the students modified their blogs to reflect the focus of their research, not their personalities. Take a look at the following examples (move your mouse over the photo to see explanatory notes on my Flickr site):
Blogging is about personal expression. The ability to personalize one’s space is something that needs to be an integral part of every community. I believe that it is an important building block that can help us build communities with our students. If a blogging community focuses primarily on creation then why not start by creating one’s space, one’s atelier where the process of creation will take place?
This reminds me of John Dewey’s statement that the self depends for its wholeness upon its surroundings (Art as Experience). In other words, what impacts the work of every individual blogger is not just the community itself or the connections made in the World Wide Web but also the immediate environment where he or she creates and “resides.” This immediate environment also allows students to become emotionally attached to their spaces. Without that involvement, Dewey argues, there can only be craftsmanship and not art. In other words, a blog I cannot personalize is a place where I have no control and no personal investment. This will greatly limit my ability to engage as an individual.
Perhaps I’m exaggerating but it seems to me that it is important to use a blogging tool that allows students to redefine their spaces as other than strictly academic sites of engagement. I have spent quite a bit of time looking at the screenshots above and have come to the conclusion that, for the most part, they do not look like school writing journals. Yes, you can see that the students are clearly engaged in school work and that there are certain elements that make these blogs similar (the “About Me” page or the link to the home page of our community), but there is also a lot of individuality in each blog. There is evidence of personal and creative engagement. These are (or have the potential to become) out-of-school learning spaces and not just school journals.
Of course, one can argue that it is all about contributions and ideas, not visual appeal. I agree. At the same time, I think it is crucial to allow all participants to create sites of inquiry that are uniquely their own. To some, this might mean using widgets. Others might choose to modify the header or font size. Whatever it is, as teachers we need to remember that it all starts with freedom – this is not just about creativity but also about stretching the boundaries and the control that characterize institutional settings.
I want my students to be able to say “This is where I write about things that I am interested in,” not “This is my school blog.” In other words, perhaps it’s time to liberate my students from the mindset of uniformity imposed upon me by the school and, instead of telling them to come to an online place that I have chosen, ask them to give me addresses of their own electronic spaces. Instead of saying, “Bookmark this URL, this is where all our blogs are going to be,” I could say, “Give me all your URLs – flickr, facebook, myspace, blogger – wherever you are – so that I can put them into one OPML file for all of us to share.”
I realize that due to various institutional constraints, many of us may not be able to use that approach for a very long time. Giving our students the freedom to build their own spaces, even within a teacher-sanctioned portal, is a good start.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
After some frustration with using classblogmeister with high school studentsI’ve been thinking about switching to 21classes this fall, and your post has cemented that decision.
Customization is huge, especially for adolescents. Look at all the stickers they put on things, look at how they decorate their lockers (even when not “allowed” to). Part of ownership is comfort, and comfort comes from making a space your own. Who among teachers doesn’t spruce up their room to reflect personality, even if it only the professional expression of that personality. It is human to decorate the home, change the background picture on the desktop, add fuzzy dice to the rear view mirror.
Visual appeal is critical. If it weren’t, ads on tv would be text. Students need to feel comfortable, need to feel ownership, before they can best take the risk of sharing their thoughts.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Konrad,
21Classes appealed to me for the same reason, and I have been pushing it with teachers that I work with, especially those that want their students to maintain their own autonomy. The issue of personalization is huge, to echo Matt above. When students gain ownership over a space, either physical or virtual, it becomes an extension of themselves. Add to that the ownership of the content on the page and it’s connective nature inside the class portal and you have the makings of some unbelievable learning experiences.
Of course, as with anything, I do have some issues with 21classes. One is the ad content. Did you turn it off through the paid service? The other issue I have stems from Ryan Bretag’s recent post “Walled Garden or Open Road: Student Blogs.” 21classes does a great job of allowing the administrator total control over the site; it’s like training wheels for teachers new to blogging. However, at what point did you feel comfortable allowing the world to see your students’ work? I only ask because of the fact that it will be a question that I will answer quite often.
Perfect timing. I am teaching a class on Monday and Tuesday called Connective Writing to a group of 8 teachers ranging from 3rd Grade all the way to 12th Grade. I would love to have you skype in for a discussion of 21classes/student blogging on Tuesday. Are you free? I will send via twitter as well.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:48 am
As I cite in an entry on my blog it comes down to control and autonomy. Are we willing to give up control, allow students opportunities for expression? Will our tools allow students to create a “presence”, establish an identity, find permamnence and persistence of their learning ewxperience? The identity and personalization available to them is still within certain confines of context and technology. I use Elgg and I’ve had students exit to the familiarity of their Facebook account. It isn’t that Elgg wasn’t useful to them, but it was “my” space not theirs – and no amount of customization could make this theirs (let’s not say never – I’m still working on this). But do we go to their environment (facebook, Myspace0 or do they come to ours (for episodic learning events called courses, sessions, terms)? My vision is of a co-operatively owned, safe web based social learning environment that is non-confining, flexible, links to other spheres of socialization (eg. explode my separate memberships in different social sites into my social network) is in control of the user (customize, personalize, own) and mobile – let this be my learning sphere that I move around the web with and dip in and out of learning experiences as I encounter them. 21classes is great, but it is just one more seperate (commercial) site connected to an incident of learning. It is good for the now. But we need to do more to find permanence, autonomy and personalization for an individuals learning experience.-
July 20th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Konrad, some practical questions if you don’t mind:
What privacy settings do you use?
* Who can post comments? Just that class, any of your students, or anyone at all?
* Who can see the student blogs?
Are you satisfied with the privacy/control options? In an ideal world how would you have them?
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Matt,
I enjoyed reading your post on frustrations with classroom blogging. I have been asking these questions ever since I started blogging with my students (three years ago). The answer turned out to be selecting themes (along with my students) for my classes – ideas that they were interested in and wanted to research. Selecting a theme – a broad topic – for the class seems to do the trick because everyone can find something within the scope of the topic that he or she is interested in.
I should write a post about that soon.
I’m glad that my experiences helped you make up your mind about which tool to use with your students. I have never tried Blogmeister or any other platforms, such as edublogs, but have been very happy with 21Classes and I do recommend it.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Patrick,
Yes, I did choose the paid option to get rid of the ads. I think the cost to have it turned off is reasonable and the fact that it can be paid monthly also makes things easier (at least at my school).
My students’ blogs are accessible to the whole wide world. However, due to privacy concerns at my school, the location of the blogs is never posted anywhere and the students are told to use only their first names and never to mention the name of the school. Most parents seem ok with this arrangement because it’s virtually impossible to find the blogs through a search engine. This is also a perfect teachable moment, I believe, because it gives me an opportunity to discuss with my students the issue of privacy.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Ian,
>* Who can post comments? Just that class, any of your students, or anyone at all?
Just the members of our class blogging community (any grade eight student)
>* Who can see the student blogs?
Please see my response to Patrick above.
>Are you satisfied with the privacy/control options? In an ideal world how would you have them?
I am. In an ideal world, however, I would leave everything wide open making it possible for you, for example, to leave a comment on any student blog.
I am thinking of inviting guest bloggers into our community this year and will create accounts for them so that they can both comment and keep a blog inside our community.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Michael,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts here. I agree. Platforms such as 21Classes will have to suffice for now but we really need to be moving away from what you referred to as “episodic learning” and towards electronic places that do not confine the teacher or the students to one officially sanctioned tool. We need to explore what you called “spheres of socialization” and understand that their potential to be places where we grow as individuals extends so far beyond the mere social factor that we seem so obsessed with today. In other words, why do we reduce mebo or facebook to mere tools that students use to stay in touch when they can be powerful learning tools.
The biggest problem with choosing a school tool for learning is that it reduces learning to “playing school” and makes it very difficult for students to keep contributing to it and expanding it once they leave that one class where they used it. I wrote about this some time ago:
blog of proximal development » Blog Archive » I Will Be a Gardener
July 24th, 2007 at 7:21 am
> I am. In an ideal world, however, I would leave everything wide open
> making it possible for you, for example, to leave a comment on any
> student blog.
In this ideal world, what benefit would the students get from comments? Who would beneficial commenters be likely to be? I am trying to build a picture of utopian educational blogging, on the basis that if we can imagine it, we may be able to implement it in software – even in the real world.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
OK, Ian, here is my utopian vision:
One of my students is interested in the following topic: child soldiers. I know enough about it to encourage her in her research and engage her in some preliminary discussions. I can even suggest some books and articles. But what if she could use the technology at her disposal (her blog, her RSS reader, etc.) to engage other people – people more competent in this field – in further discussion? I’m sure she would love to receive feedback from and engage in online conversations with journalists who have covered this topic and traveled to Sierra Leone, or Chad, or other places where children were/are used as combatants. I would love to have her contact and learn from people like Ishmael Beah, Wijedasa Namini, or Jimmie Briggs, to name a few. I would personally contact them and try to encourage them to read her blog and cultivate her passion for social justice and this topic.
In other words, I know that blogging is about conversations and building networks. So far, my students have been building networks within our class community and with some amazing results. It’s time to extend those network-building efforts to include the world outside of their immediate environment.
What benefit would my students get from the comments? I look at it as breaking down the classroom walls. That’s what I want to do next. I want the students to build knowledge by building networks, and I also want them to be able to take those networks with them once they leave my classroom.
I want my student to keep blogging about child soldiers and communicating with experts in this field even after she leaves my class in June so that next time one of my students says “I’m interested in child soldiers,” I can say: “Take a look at this blog. She was in my class a couple of years ago. Send her an e-mail. Subscribe to her blog. You’ll learn a lot.”
July 25th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Conrad, It won’t surprise you to hear that your observations hold true for elementary students as well. Two years ago I had a Moodle to use with our fifth grade. Kids found it interesting, but when I allowed them to change their avatar, I saw a huge leap in ownership and interest. Likewise, we used Blogmeister and the kids delighted in being able to at least choose their own background. It made it “their” place.
Glad to hear about your success with 21Classes. I had planned to look at it this summer, but I ran out of summer.
As always, thanks for your blog. It always leaves me thinking.
July 27th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Thanks for your kind words, Susan.
In fact, it seems to me that the younger they are the more interest they show in personalization.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Hi. I thanks for this discussion. I am just starting to use 21classes. I like it very much. However, I have some glitches. I have “Allow Karma Voting” checked off to use the star accounts, but when I review and leave comments, or when my students leave comments for each other, the star voting doesn’t show up. I looked at the instructions and it asks me to find menu items that don’t exist, like Weblog > More Options. There is no “More Options” at the bottom of that menu.
I also entered all my student passwords but when I manage student accounts, it doesn’t show them. I’d like to see them.
I have the paid account.
If anyone has answers to these issues I’d be so grateful! I set up an incentive program for the star account, but now I can’t get it to function!
Robert
Middle School Teacher
Los Angeles
January 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Robert,
I have never come across this problem, and I did use Karma Stars with my students. That was over a year ago, so things might have changed.
It is not possible to see student passwords. However, as admin, you can reset them to whatever you want if the students forget the passwords they chose.
I forwarded your comment to 21classes tech support. They have always been very supportive whenever I had questions. I’m sure they’ll get back to you shortly.
- Konrad