Blogging Using SEEdebate.org
Blogging is a way to get students excited about writing. Effective bloggers are strong persuasive writers, who have demonstrated a thorough understanding of the assigned text.
There are many ways to incorporate blogging into your classroom. An easy tool is SEEdebate, a website which maintains its own articles on discussion-provoking topics. SEE (Student Educational Exchange Inc) is a non-profit organization providing online learning tools for educators and students. SEEdebate is created for educators, and the site administrators have designed a very teacher-friendly site. SEEdebate regularly posts articles, videos, and polls to SEEdebate users for open response; teachers may also add their own articles for SEEdebate public discussions. As evidenced on Facebook, students enjoy public discussions on controversial social issues and the like.most. The ability to voice their wrtten opinions, etc. is both exciting and an eye-opening experience.
A sample exchange:
The best aspect of SEEdebate is that teachers can not only create their own exchanges, but may opt to limit who gets to participate in the blogging assignment. While global exchanges are undeniably exciting, some teachers may prefer to limit which students can see and join the discussion.
Here's how to create your own assignments:
Steps:
Go to www.SEEdebate.org
Create an “educator” account, listing your class(es) in the profile.
Provide your class account code to your students, so they can create their own class accounts.
Click on "create content" within the grey bar on lefthand side.
Click on "exchange"
Type in your title, assignment in the "Body" box.
Select subject areas, source url, and audience (note: if you want your assignment private, unclick the "public" box
Click submit.
You may choose to create your own quality questions, providing them "questions to consider," or you can make so that students can create their own quality questions. While teachers can monitor them, SEEdebate does not permit teachers to join in on the discussions, which means the dialogue is completely student-centered. Naturally, you will have to set up rules for blogging (e.g., tone of blog entries, banning pofanity, etc.).
Usually after a blogging assignment, you can refer to the blogs in class, and use them as springboards for class discussion. This is empowering for students, especially those who are less likely to talk during class hours, but passionate bloggers. You can also create writing prompts (e.g., quality questioning) from their blogs to create further blogging assignment, encouraging written dialogue between the students.