Research



Research to Support Web 2.0 Technologies in School

Zawilinski, Lisa. "HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking ." __The Reading Teacher__ 62.8 (2009): 650-661.


 * This article describes instructional practices with blogs in elementary classrooms. Schools need to prepare students for the new literacies required when reading on the Internet; blogging is an easy way to begin. A theoretical rationale for blogging with elementary students is provided. Learning from the examples of successful blogs by elementary teachers, four common types of classroom blogs with accompanying examples are shared: classroom news blogs, mirror blogs, showcase blogs, and literature response blogs. Resources and suggestions for starting a classroom blog are explained. Finally, HOT blogging, which is a framework for higher order thinking, is discussed. This approach to blogging provides teachers with a systematic way to integrate blogs, deepen comprehension, and teach the new literacies of online reading comprehension

Ramaswami, Rama. "The Prose of Blogging (and a Few Cons, Too)." __T.H.E. Journal__ (Nov. 2008). __T.H.E. Journal: Transforming Education Through Technology__. Media Inc. 14 June 2009 .
 * Blogging for the sake of blogging is fine, but what is the value added?" That's a question educational blogging advocates are now coming around to answer, and the value they're finding may seem preposterous to those who associate blogging with barely literate loudmouths and cyber predators. Can this often belligerent wasteland of poor punctuation and indiscernible structure actually help develop better student writers? In this article, the author discusses that several educators are beginning to demonstrate it can. Barry Bachenheimer, director of instructional services for Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools in New Jersey, showed in his study that blogging can improve students' writing skills by making them write more frequently and comment on one another's work. Bachenheimer's findings were expanded upon by a study involving University of Florida preservice teachers and published last year in the "Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education." "Collaborative Blogging as a Means to Develop Elementary Expository Writing Skills," which examined the effects of collaboration via blogs between the preservice teachers and third-grade students at a west central Florida school, provided evidence that blogging has positive effects on student writing

Morgan, B., & Smith, R.D. (2008, September). A Wiki for Classroom Writing. The Reading Teacher, 62 (1), 80–82. doi: 10.1598/RT.62.1.10
 * Wikis can be a very useful addition to any classroom. They are engaging to students, easy to use, and focus on literacy whenever students genuinely interact with them. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia ([|www.wikipedia.org]), is the most famous example of a wiki. But today, teachers and students are beginning to engage with this technology more and more, creating a variety of wiki types, which are engaging to students, easy to use, and focus on literacy whenever students genuinely interact with them.