Effects of blogging, wikis, and social networking on education

I am trying to gather a list of resources, especially those based on research, which support the use of blogs, wikis, and social networking and it's positive effects on education. I am trying both build a case for the use of these tools, as well as provide a thoughtful and reasoned approach to safety issues, content management, and some effective safeguards and bets practices surrounding their use. Any help would be appreciated.

Blogging_to_Learn.pdf

blogs as learning spaces.pdf

db_31_boud_in_english.pdf

The Effectiveness and Benefits of Social Networking and Blogging in...

The Prose of Blogging.pdf

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Comment by Mea on December 17, 2008 at 10:25am: want to see an example? i started blogging with my third graders at www.msarthur.blogspot.com
as far as safety issues, i moderate all comments and students use first names only. they do not need to register or have an account to post. All students have signed Acceptable Use Policy forms at the start of the school year giving students permission to use the internet.

Comment by Scott on December 17, 2008 at 10:37am: How did you structure the begining of the lessons with blogging? We have a fairly conservative population and we need to focus a good amount of effort making sure we have made every effort to protect students. Hence, we are slow moving in adopting some of these tools. How long have you been doing this with your 3rd graders? What kind of responses have you gotten from them, their parents, etc?

Comment by Mea on December 17, 2008 at 11:17am: Parents must agree to the internet policy at the beginning of the year. I can send you a copy if you'd like.
I introduce parents to the blog at our open house night and explain how it works.
The beginning of the year we do several internet safety lessons. Scholastic.com has a few lessons on safety and starting to blog. It's a good starting point.
From there, i intro my Blog page. I write all the posts and have the students comment. This way I can moderate who's commenting and on what. students never have contact with strangers on the internet. They never use their full name or give out any other info.
I write a post almost every week. The students comments get better as the year goes on. It's a different outlet for their learning responses. I find the most reserved students become my biggest bloggers!!

Comment by Scott on December 17, 2008 at 11:24am: excellent - I'd like to see your AUP - in Washington, the state Tech Director and a working group updated the state "boilerplate" AUP and board policy with specific attention to allowing blogs, wikis, social networking. That last part especially has drawn some concern in our district.

Comment by Britt Gow on December 18, 2008 at 10:14pm: Hi Scott, I did a Collaborative Learning and Research Project with about thirty Victorian teachers, investigating whether social networking can improve student outcomes in middle years maths and science classes. You can see my digital story here message me back for further resources and information.