Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers: Introduction to Blogger, a web log or blog. that can be used for Judaic instruction and teacher training

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Introduction to Blogger, a web log or blog. that can be used for Judaic instruction and teacher training

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices, and demonstrate how these best practices can be applied in the real (i.e. physical) and virtual (i.e. online) classroom for both teaching and teacher training. The combination of face to face instruction in a physical setting and online learning is called blended learning. In this section of the blog we will describe how the internet can serve as a supplemental resource for instruction and the mentoring of pre-service and in-service Jewish educators. In this post we will begin our discussion on how students in a Judaic Studies blended learning classroom can use Blogger to enhance learning.

Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has a interactive white board (i.e. SMART Board, Promethean, etc.), a Tablet PC (also called a Slate or Blade), a computer presenter or computer with internet access attached to an LCD projector in the classroom. It would be ideal if students or mentees had access to their own laptop computers or Ipads as well.

Note: Although Blogger can be applied in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom, it can be also be used for training pre-service and in-service Jewish educators for professional or staff development. It is our hope that Jewish educators around the globe will form an online community of practice, a CoP, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession, to enhance the delivery of instruction and training of Jewish educators. For example, here is a CoP you might want to join.

Note: Blogger can also be used in a face to face classroom without adding the online component.

What is Blogger?

Blogger is a web-based blog.

What is a blog?

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog) :

A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.[2]

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.[3]

Where is Blogger located on the web?

http://www.blogger.com/home

Where can you find helpful tutorials on how to use Blogger?

Click on the links below for tutorials on Blogger:

At the top of this post I have uploaded images with explanations of this blog.

Below I have embedded a tutorial that I placed on Vimeo which describes how I created this blog post.

Demonstration on how to make a blog post on Blogger from Richard D Solomon, PhD on Vimeo.

On the next post we will share a tutorial on how I use Blogger as a web-based tool or communication channel to enhance Judaic education and the mentoring/training of pre-service and in-service Judaic educators.