Penzu--Just a Journal

 

I recently saw where a fellow ITRT in another district highly praised “Penzu.com”, a site I wasn’t familiar with.  He stated that it was one of the more heavily used sites by his teachers.  I decided to check it out and upon reading about it, I was puzzled, it seemed to be just another blogging site.  But, after going to the site and using it, I began to see what makes it distinctive—its simplicity and security.

Penzu is very easy to use, even for those who aren’t too computer savvy.  Click here and you’ll see what I mean.  What comes up is a window which looks like an old fashioned sheet of writing paper.

You can immediately start journaling.  By running your mouse across the icons on the top of the paper you’ll find buttons to create a new entry, save, print,  insert a photo, and change the appearance.   All in all though, it is a lot quicker and easier to use than your typical blog.  There are self-apparent reasons why an English teacher  would want their students to journal,  so let’s look at Penzu from a teacher’s perspective. 

Penzu is not set up for classroom use, it is intended for individual use.  To sign up for an account, one does need to have an Email address—if this seems like an insurmountable barrier to student use, see your friendly, local ITRT and we’ll  help you out here.    The creators set Penzu up to have advantages over a paper/pencil journal.  For example,  it can’t be lost or destroyed—it is stored on line (although you can download entries).  One can access their online journal from multiple platforms—iPads, Android devices,  or any internet computer.  My immediate reaction to this was—yes, but the big disadvantage compared to pencil and paper is its vulnerability in the area of privacy.  A quick investigation revealed how wrong I was.  Not only can it be set up so no one except you can access it, but it can also be encrypted with government/military level  encryption, one reviewer called it the “Rambo” of such sites. 

You might be wondering, if it is so private and super-secret, how does it fit into a classroom?  Well, it can be private, but, it can also be shared.  You can Email the entry (anonymously if desired) or you can share a link to the entry.  Comments can be allowed at the author’s discretion. 

One more observation, part of the charm (for me) of Penzu, is its appearance—it looks like a diary I might have kept “back in the day”.  However, that appearance may not have the same appeal to today’s student.  All  in all, I’m impressed with this and site find it an option worth considering for a teacher that wants to have their students do some journaling.

Kidblog in the Classroom

Guest Blogging this week are Candi Conner and Casey Gillikin.  In my travels I learned that they had began this year to use blogs in their fifth grade classrooms at Metompkin Elementary School.  I asked if they woiuld be willing to write a Treasure Chest Post about this experience and they promptly produced the piece below.  My comments are added in italics.

     At the beginning of the year we decided that we wanted to use technology in our classrooms in a way that engaged the students and made it easier for us to share information as teachers. We created blogs with the intention of giving resources to students and parents and getting feedback from our students. We also wanted the students to learn how to use technology in an appropriate way. We use our kidblogs to post links to websites we like for different subjects, to give project rubrics, to allow students to write their writing pieces, and for editing in writing. (Teachers can give grades and comments to individual students which only they can view.) Students may ask questions to us or the other students and may upload anything they create. This allows for parents to see the products that their child creates at school and to feel like they have a sense of what is going on in the classroom. With technology being all around us we feel that the blog has made students more accountable for what they say and do which has taught them online etiquette. We approve every comment made on the blog before it is posted. The students simply log in with their name and password and get to work. Throughout the year we have thought of many ways to incorporate the blog for the years to come. The link below is to one of our blogs.
www.kidblog.org/msgillikinsclass

If you click on the link above, rather than reading through their student's postings, you'll learn how secure this site is.  Ms. Conner and Ms. Gillikin have their site set up so that only class members and their parents can view what has been posted.  Their are many security settings a teacher may chose between.

Kid's Reaction: Students love anything technology and anything that they can call their own so the blog increases student engagement immediately. It also is a great way to decrease the student excuse of, "I lost it" because anything can be posted. When students are able to login to their own space of the blog the quality of work that you receive changes. They know that their peers can see what they are working on and they feel more of a responsibility.

 Also, by having a classroom blog you as a teacher will begin to feel more comfortable with technology and branch out to other forms. The blog is great because you can use it as little or as much as you want. It's very easy which is important for the hectic life of a teacher! Students also like easy and if they can have all their materials and expectations in one place they can focus on what really matters.
   
To set up a blog site for your class, simple create an account at kidblog.org.
If you'd like help or suggestions on ways to use a blog, see your friendly neighborhood ITRT