Blogs are popular. Technorati, a website which tracks blogs, lists 73.4 million blogs as of April 2007. One year ago they tracked about half that number: 35.3 million blogs. While 100% growth in twelve months is impressive, from March 2003 to April 2006 Technorati reported that the number of blogs was doubling every six months.

Because blogs are easy for the author to update and equally easy for reader response through comments, blogs are the perfect tool for a teacher looking to engage his students outside the classroom.

Usage Examples

• Repository: A basic starting point is to use the class blog as a repository of class documents. The teacher might include a syllabus, lecture notes, handouts, slides, and links to suggested resources. Not only is this an excellent way to communicate with the students, but a class blog can communicate to students' parents (particularly helpful if teaching children or youth), church members (as a form of promotion--show them what they are missing!), community members (even if they are hesitant to enter a church, they can get a feel for the content), and other interested parties (such as those who cannot attend the class because of location). Finally, using the blog just as a repository will create a helpful archive to reach out to other for years to come.

• Reader Response: Building upon the repository model, the next step would be for the teacher to periodically post though-provoking questions to which the students are invited to reply. For example, after a session on global missions, the teacher might write a post asking, "What do you think prevents many Christians from being more actively involved in global missions?" Students can then post responses as comments and discuss the issue.

• Guest Blogger of the Week: Another related idea is to invite an expert in the field to be the guest blogger of the week. Again, using the global missions examples, the teacher could invite a church-sponsored missionary to post a series of blog entries for one week. Students would be alerted to this special event in advance and invited to follow along and ask questions via the comments.

• Guest Student Blogger: For one week a student could be given the chance to direct the conversation. He could post the weekly question and ask for reader response or synthesize his thoughts on the class so far. As always, his classmates would be invited to respond via the comments. This example would be the online equivalent of a student presentation in the classroom.

• Guest Student Group Bloggers: Simliar to the Guest Student Blogger, but this example invites a small group of students to take the lead during a week. They would be asked to post a group project via the blog. If one group was focusing on the state of the church in Peru, their post(s) might include a short text summary, photos representing the face of the church in Peru, and an mp3 of Peruvian hymns.

• Historical Figure Blogger: A teacher or student could blog a journal of an important figure of history. For example, if a class is exploring the Protestant Reformation, he could blog a series of entries from the vantage point of Martin Luther detailing both what is happening and what he feels may be the consequences.

Next Steps

• While one can install blogging software onto his server, it will be easier for most simply to utilize one of the many free blog hosts. Two respectable hosting sites include Wordpress.com and Blogger.com. In both hosts, setting up a blog is literally as simple as thinking up a name for your blog.

• After setting up a blog, play around with it. You really aren't apt to "break" it and experimenting is a great way to learn. However, if you would like some help, visit this site for Wordpress.com tutorials and this site for help with Blogger.com

• When you want to start using a blog for education, start small and slow. It may take the students time to become accustomed to the flow of a blog in the educational context, but once they catch on, hopefully it will be a useful resource!

[Related resources: Your Guide to Blogging]

Wikis

Description

Collaboration is the name of the game when it comes to wikis. Wikipedia defines a wiki as

"a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration....This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring."

As such, wikis are the perfect tool to engage students with one another outside the classroom. They provide an easy-to-use environment in which students can collaborate and learn to work together. As one site writes, "The process is the product. Meaning is developed and guided out of the social interactions at the point where text is created."

Usage Examples

• Student-Created Class Notes: While a teacher may post his notes on a website such as a blog, he could also assign a student, small group of students, or all the students to collaborate on the class wiki to summarize the previous week's lecture. (This is the concept behind NoteMesh.)

• Collaborative Discussion Questions: A teacher may assign students sections of a book to which to make discussion questions. Students would work together creating and editing questions of their peers. Those discussion questions may then be used in small groups during the next gathering.

• Real-time Questions: Students are encouraged to write questions related to the class's topic which arise during the week. Students are also asked to respond to their peers if they have an helpful insight to those posted questions. These responses can be further edited by their classmates as well. During the semester, these questions and responses will not only be helpful to the students, but the sensitive teacher will guide his teaching to respond to areas that seems to be most confusing or thought-provoking to the students. Finally, by the end of the semester, a concise FAQ will have been developed.

• Research Repository: If the students are working in small groups to research an assigned topic, they can be encouraged to use a wiki as a repository for all their research.

• Intra- or Inter-church Teaching Resource: Because churches tend to teach the same Sunday School topics, a wiki could be used as a resource for all to list their resources and suggestions on that particular topic. (Cf. South Africa's entire high school curriculum on a wiki. (Richardson 67))

[Note: Collaboration is increasingly being built into various web applications--even beyond wikis per se. Any of the above ideas, therefore, could be implemented into those environments with minimal altering. For example, the ESV blog recently mentioned a collaborative Bible study or consider the following demo of Zoho Notebook.]

Next Steps

• Like blogs, one can install wiki software on his server, but it will again probably be easier to use a hosted wiki. Three reputable wiki hosts are PBWiki, wikispaces, and wikia. One can compare these and other wiki engines at WikiMatrix.

• After creating the wiki, add content and invite others to add and edit the content. Remember the key word is "collaboration."

[Related resources: Using wikis in education]

Social Bookmarking

Description

Social bookmarking allows people to, as Wikipedia states, "store, classify, share and search" their bookmarks. For educators the allure of social bookmarking is in easily creating an archive of online resources specific to both their content and students.

Usage Examples

• Teacher-Guided Class Resource: A basic use of Social Bookmarks is for the teacher to tag sites he has found helpful in preparing for the class. Students could then access these bookmakrs via the unique tag(s) the teacher assigns. For example, if a teacher at First Baptist is teaching a class on the Historical Geography of the Bible, he might tag OpenBible.info with a unique tag such as "FBHistGeo" (which stands for "First Baptist Historical Geography"). Interested students could then check out the suggested resources on the social bookmarking site.

• Teacher and Student-Guided Class Resource: Similiar to above, but now the students are invited to find and tag appropriate sites. This brings in the collaborative idea of a wiki, but makes it easier and site centered.

• Anotated and Email-able Bibliograhy: Sites often allow additional features such as including comments, a web clipping, emailing or referring the link to somebody, and easily creating a styled bibliography. Further, Furl retains a cached copy of the site so that if the bookmarked site ever disappears, a copy is still retained on Furl.

Next Steps

• Start by bookmarking sites used in preparation or which may be useful to the students. After bookmarking them, invite students to view and visit those sites by sharing the address. The prominent social bookmarking services use standard address formats; so the address to the your links on theology, for example, would be: http://www.furl.net/members/TeacherUsername/Theology or http://del.icio.us/TeacherUsername/Theology.

• After becoming comfortable with the social bookmarking paradigm, invite students to add to the collection by tagging with a unique tag. (Note: This will probably work best in del.icio.us rather than Furl). Voila! A collaborative resource is made!

[Related resources: Furl Guide, Another Furl Guide (pdf)]

RSS

Description

"RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and provides a critical component in the emerging teacher and student's learning toolbox. RSS enables people to see if any new content has been published by sites of interest without actually visiting those sites. Therefore, RSS is a great time saver and provides a means of managing the great amount of information the Internet provides.

All of the technologies described above utilize RSS.

Programs known as "RSS aggregators" or "feed readers" bring all of this together. These programs may either be run locally from the user's computer or, more preferably, be accessed through a website such as Google Reader or Bloglines.com.

Here is a good video primer.

Usage Examples

• Reading Blogs: An RSS can greatly enable a teacher or student to keep up with multiple blogs. There is a blog for literally any topic. For help finding these blogs, use a search like Technorati or Google Blog Search.

• Staying Current on Class Blogs, Wikis, Social Bookmarks, etc.: Rather than checking the class blog each day, the teacher and students can subscribe to the feed and have it notify them when updates are made. A blog will usually have a separate feed for entries and comments so even discussion in the comments can be tracked. This same method works for changes in the class wiki or additions to the social bookmarking site. For example, if First Baptist's Historical Geography of the Bible class uses the unique tag "FBHistGeo" to tag pertinent sites on del.icio.us, all of those sites will be listed at http://del.icio.us/tags/FBHistGeo. While one could check that page each day looking for newly added sites, subscribing to the RSS feed of that page (again, simply by adding "http://del.icio.us/tags/FBHistGeo" to the feed reader) will automatically display new sites when the feed reader is opened by the user.

• Specific Searches: Search sites are increasingly offering RSS feeds for searches. For example, if a teacher wanted to be kept abreast on persecution in the Chinese church, he could search for it (using the terms "Chinese church persecution") on a site like Google Blog Search. The search returns related articles, but also gives the teacher a number of ways to be updated. (See the left-hand column of the screenshot below.) Included is an RSS feed which the teacher can add to his feed reader and be notified anytime a new article on Chinese church persecution is written.

Next Steps

• Open an account with Google Reader or Bloglines.com and add some feeds related to the topic of study. Then add a feed by copying and pasting the address of the blog, wiki, etc. into the proper field within Google Reader or Bloglines. For more help using Google Reader, see their help section or to use Bloglines, see here.

• After becoming comfortable with reading RSS feeds, use RSS to monitor class related sites as discussed above. Using RSS feeds is critical to using these tools effectively!

Social Cataloging

Description

Similar to social bookmarking, social cataloging "allows users to catalog items (ie., books, CDs, etc.) owned or otherwise of interest to them. Once cataloged, such applications generally allow users to share their catalogs with others, and interact with others based upon shared items." (source)

Hence, this expands the realm of resources that a teacher may share with his students. Further, it allows for interaction around those resources.

Usage Examples

• Virtual Library: A teacher can create an account and appropriately tag all of his books. The student can browse (and borrow if the teacher is generous) whatever books the teacher has listed. Further, when a student inquires, for example, for good books about eschatology, the teacher can send the student a link which shows all the books he owns tagged "eschatology". Also, the teacher can tag all books related to a specific class with a unique tag (similar to the role "FBHistGeo" played above). A dynamic list of all book associated with that course can then be maintained and utilized by the class.

• Book Clubs: Some social cataloging services offer user-created groups which offer users with similar interests to congregate and discuss. For example, here is a Biblical languages group on LibraryThing and here is a group on Christian discipleship on Shelfari. These are a good forum for specific book or theme discussion and allow members to share their libraries as well.

Next Steps

• Open an account on a social catalog site such as LibraryThing and list and tag your books. (This process is quite simply and quick--if not a bit addictive!) Then announce this "virtual library" to students for their perusal and use.

• Others aspiring students can do the same and the sharing of resources can continue!

Social Networking

Description

The rise of sites like Myspace and Facebook which allow people to virtually congregate and connect has been well documented by the media. Such popular sites can be used effectively in the educational ministries of the church as a way to build the teacher-student relationship outside of the classroom.

Usage Examples

• Class-specific Groups: Social networking sites allow users to create groups. Because many younger students are already on Myspace or Facebook, a teacher can create a group and invite the students to join it. While not as robust as a class blog (ala above), this group can serve as a good place for class announcements and discussions. Further, groups in social networking sites are hot now and may be a more viable solution to communicate with those who would not check a blog!

• Personal Encouragement: By "friending" those in his class, a teacher can then write short notes to his students offering a timely word of encouragement and care. In many circles, this messaging is the new email.

Next Steps

• Consider the pros and cons of joining a social network. The pros are being able to connect and care for students on their turf (if they are into such networks), but the cons include the addictive and self-centered nature of creating a profile which may elevates the self. Further, some of the content will be objectionable. Consider one youth pastor's decision to stay away from MySpace.

• If suitable, become a member at the social networking site of choice and engage with the students using the examples above.

Chat

Description

While the examples above are asynchronous, chat offers the opportunity for real-time communication from various locations. Increasingly this includes audio and video chat and not only text-based chat.

Usage Examples

• Virtual Office Hours: A teacher can tell his students that he will be available during a specific time each week. This is an opportunity for students to ask class-related questions directly to the teach or for students to discuss topics as a group in a chat room, conference call, or Skypecast.

• Global Classroom: Because chat is not location dependent, it offers the ability to talk with students around the world. A teacher could form a partnership with a church in another part of the country or world and arrange a time for his class to interact with the other class in real-time communication. Different perspectives on the class topics would certainly arise and offer another perspective to the issue.

• Guest Teacher: Related, a guest teacher from literally anywhere in the world could be invied to facilitate a chat-based discussion pertaining to the class topic. Students could interact and immediately gain yet another perspective.

Next Steps

• Decide which chat technologies are most contextually appropriate. Text-based chat such as AIM are widely available (even on cell phones!) and may be a good starting place. However, the emergence of Skype and iChat are making audio and video chat more of a reality.

• After deciding, start to informally chat with students so as to become accustomed to the chat culture (including specialized acronyms -- Need help? Use this decoder!)

• Then consider setting up online office hours or special events in the chat environment. (see Case Study for examples)

Podcasting

Description

Podcasting is the distribution of audio or video files using RSS [adapted from Wikipedia's entry on podcasting]. Just as one may publish text on a blog, podcasting allows one to publish audio or video. This audio or video can then be automatically downloaded to one's computer such that each morning (for example) the user has a new podcast waiting for him.

Usage Examples

• Lecture: The most obvious use for podcasting is for the teacher to syndicate his lecture audio via the podcast. This allows subscribed parties to automatically review the lecture as well as archive for future reference.

• Class Recap / Preview: A teacher could record a brief review of last week's lesson and a preview for the upcoming week's topic. Akin to a short news summary or movie trailer, this might be well received in our sound-byte culture.

• Interview: "Getting to know you" interviews of teachers or students can help create a warm atmosphere within the learning community.

Next Steps

• Listen to some podcasts. Find some podcasts by checking out one of the many podcast directories.

• While a detailed explanation of how to podcast is beyond the scope of this entry, thankfully there are many tutorials on the Internet--including a site completely devoted to a podcast tutorial! But, in short, podcasting involves two steps: recording the podcast and uploading the podcast. Site like Odeo Studio, Big Contact, and Gcast have made podcasting increasingly accessible.