[Listen to This Blog Text Here] Blogging in the classroom isn't an experiment anymore. It may still be new to many teachers, and we may still have plenty to learn about how to take the most advantage to this new genre, but many of us have been blogging with our students for several years now. We've grown more and more clear about why blogging in a social networking is central to our curricula, and we are more confident in the tools we can use to do this work.

One of the things we say to each other in this podcast is that this work is exciting because it has a history (and a theory) and a future. As schools begin again this fall, over a dozen teachers will be joining together to plan curriculum for two school-based social networks. Last year we started collecting together our plans on a wikispaces site, Elgg Plans. Our high school students' work can be found on an elgg, Youth Voice and on another wikispaces site, Youth Wiki. Our middle school students' blogs are on an elgg, the Personal Learning Space, that is a "walled garden."

Can you imagine blogging with your students? Want to join us? We would welcome you, especially now! Please respond to this post. Let us know of your interest, and we'll help you get started. Also, take a look at these Guidelines for Joining YouthVoices.net.

We'll show you how we use James Beane's "10 self and 10 world questions" to build curriculum with out students. (See this Trailfire for more information.) We plan to also mix in a healthy dose of Paulo Freire's "generative words" and "generative themes." (See a description of "generative themes that discusses images in a book, Brave New Schools. And find "generative" in the third chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.) There's also some business about Peter Elbow's notions of freewriting and focused sentences, and so much more!

At the end of this podcast, Lee Baber shows how blogging has changed her way of teaching:

Hi Bloggers, Wiki writers, WebQuesters, and online learners,
I am currently a doctoral student at the University of Phoenix online program in education, leadership, curriculum, and instruction. As much as I love researching and writing papers, I have to come up with a problem statement for my dissertation. I am interested in online learning, WebQuests, and ways of integrating technology into the EFL/ESL classroom. My EFL high school students are not motivated to learn in the classroom because they learn English from TV, the Internet, and through music.

I am also interested in coaching and relationship education as a way to improve learning. The WebQuest seems to have everything I am interested in: teamwork and social skills, higher order critical thinking skills, and learning by means of technology. But, I can't come up with a research question/problem.