Reaction to Brenda Sherry's "Teddy Bears Go Blogging"

Brenda Sherry's article reads like a how-to essay for gradually incorporating blogging into the classroom.  The Teddy Bear Project was the vehicle for a transition from private publishing in e-mails to public publishing in blogs, about which classmates, pen pals, teachers, and parents can comment.  The key for me will be to create a similar vehicle, a comparable overarching project that motivates students to blog and to participate in a writing community. 

One vehicle that is already in place at my school is Project Amigo, a project that connects our students with Mexican students via Skype conversations.  Both parties practice their primary and secondary languages, moving back and forth between Spanish and English with the guidance of teachers.  An important objective in the language arts curriculum is to teach students to understand the difference between spoken and written language and to "speak and write using standard language structures and diction appropriate to audience and task" (Standard 4.3).  Blogging may be a way to augment Project Amigo with a written component.  Video chats engender fellowship and provide a simulated immersion experience--putting a face with the name, socializing informally, working on accents--but blogging and commenting between the schools allows students to write purposefully and conscientiously in Spanish and English.  Students will also have time to deconstruct/translate text and to craft responses.  Overcoming the language barrier will give students added motivation to follow conventions and employ appropriate grammatical constructions and vocabulary.  This is something I might pursue, especially because the partnership is already in place.

Sherry's most important point is that the "focus was on the communication, rather than the technology."  She emphasizes here that blogging technology is nearly foolproof once in place.  The teacher must oversee action like a webmaster, but the paperless concreteness of the Web and the user-friendly, do-it-from-anywhere editing features (certainly more user-friendly than files and files of word documents moving within networks and flash drives) take the onus off the teacher and put "control in the hands of the learners."  The learner must consider the essential questions about communication rather than the trivial questions about formatting, printing, saving, and e-mail.  They consider: (1) What do I want to say? (2) To whom do I want to say it? (3) How do I want to say it? (4) How will I use comments to my/our advantage?  (5) When and how will I revise what I say? 

Hopefully students will realize the importance of writing as a reader, as a critical audience member who will judge postings based on content as well as appearance, on ideas as well as conventionality, on message as well as form.  How will I present myself so as to be taken seriously by a general audience?  Who or what should I consult if I have questions about my communication?  The blogosphere is conducive to asking and answering these questions in an authentic and healthy way: to write as readers with the audience always in mind.


Because editing previous posts is so easy, integrating suggestions from comments or proofreading after learning a new convention in a mini-lesson becomes almost fun.  I suspect it must feel like turning back the clock.  "Thanks for pointing out opportunities for improvements," says the blogger when he edits a posting.  Or at least the thick-skinned blogger will.  I fear that a blogging community could crumble under the weight of a crass or insensitive comment.  That is why I was so relieved by Sherry's explanation of how she managed this risk: "I then enabled the comment moderation button, which meant that I received an e-mail copy and the option to publish or reject the comment.  This was a good way for me to screen the content for appropriateness and to make sure that Internet safety was a priority."  The comment moderation feature is perfect and allows the teacher to be the final firewall against the destruction of a a blogging community through unneeded controversy. 

I don't know if teddy bears will go blogging in my school, but I know students will.