Blogs in classrooms are a new genre that is developing and changing daily. Scholarly literature explores the use of blogs in educational settings, often however at the secondary and college levels. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore how blogging influenced student writing development at the elementary level. Fifth graders' pre-and post the blogging project writing samples and other student blog posts were the primary data. A qualitative content analysis was applied to explore the following areas of interest in student writing: attitude, content, voice, connections and relationships, thinking, and craft. The findings indicate that student bloggers became mindful of and connected to the audience, were exercising agency in a community of bloggers, and were learning to take ownership of the writing process and the writer's craft. Refraining from putting a heavy focus on correcting writing conventions during this formative time of writing development enabled students to concentrate on writing that they filled with opinions, humor, expression, and playfulness as they learned to rethink their concepts of writing and its meaning in their lives.

In response to national technology mandates, schools across the United States have committed themselves to laptop technology programs as a way to encourage student-centered learning and critical thinking in collaborative classrooms. Most secondary English teachers in this study did not reject technology per se; rather, they saw some benefits of laptop technology in English instruction. Unfortunately, however, when asked to describe their overall experiences and attitudes toward technology, these teachers revealed a great deal of ambivalence about it in their instruction, especially in the context of a schoolwide laptop technology initiative. Four larger clusters of conflict contributed to this ambivalence: (1) conflicts surrounding institutional control in implementing the laptop program and teacher agency; (2) conflicts surrounding standardized testing's uncertain relationship with technology mandates; (3) conflicts surrounding technology uses in the general curriculum and technology allocation in specific class types; and (4) conflicts surrounding professional identity and the challenges that both student and teacher technology use brought to this identity. The study concludes that these teachers needed to be given greater agency in planning and implementing the laptop technology initiative and in revising their curriculum to embrace this new technology, and the necessary professional development to prepare them for such an educational innovation.

This article describes a process for proofreading with podcasting for elementary and middle school bloggers. The podcasting and blogging technologies engage two senses, hearing and seeing. In addition, the audio and text are merged through the voice of a reader, rather than that of the student. Proofreading in this way is used not as a final step to check primarily for errors but rather as a more complex literacy that includes writing, higher order thinking, and learning to identify with the audience members and their needs as readers. We called this process “proof‐revising” to distinguish how it evolved from basic proofreading to a complex literacy. تصف هذه المقالة عملية مراجعة القراءة في مجال بث ملفات سماعية أو بصرية عبر الشبكة العالمية (بود كاست) لمدوني طلاب الابتدائية والإعدادية. تشغل تقينة البود كاست والتدوين حاستي السمع والنظر وبالإضافة إلى ذلك يتم جمع الصوت والنص في صوت قارئ بدلاً من الطالب وبهذه الطريقة لا تُستخدَم مراجعة القراءة أساساً كالخطوة الأخيرة من أجل تفتيش عن الأخطاء إنما تُستخدَم كنوع معقد من المعرفة تشتمل فيها على الكتابة والتفكير العالي المستوى وربط الإحساس بإحساس الجمهور وحاجاتهم كقراء. وقد سمينا هذه العملية ((مراجعة منقحة)) كي نميز تطورها من مراجعة القراءة العادية إلى عملية معقدة من التعلم. 本文描述有关中、小学生博客利用播客发布音频文件的校对过程。播客与博客科技是需要使用听觉和视觉两这种感觉官能。音频与文本的融合，是通过读者的声音，而不是通过学生的声音，文件的校对因此就不是为了核对错误的最后程序，而却成为一个更复杂的读写学习过程，其中包含了写作、高层次思维、学习与读者产生共鸣和认同作为读者的需要。我们把该读写学习过程称为「校对修订」，以识别出这方法是如何由基本的校对过程演化成为复杂的读写学习过程。 Cet article décrit un processus de correction d'épreuves lors de téléchargements par des bloggeurs élèves de l'élémentaire et de collège. Les technologies de téléchargement et de blog engagent deux sens, l'audition et la vision. De plus, l'audio et le texte passent par la voix d'un lecteur, plutôt que par celle de l'élève. La correction d'épreuves par ce moyen est utilisée non pas comme une étape finale pour vérifier principalement des erreurs mais plutôt comme une littératie plus complexe qui inclut écriture, pensée de haut niveau, et apprentissage à s'identifier avec le public et ses besoins en tant que lecteurs. Nous avons appelé « correction d'épreuves » ce processus pour mettre en évidence son évolution de la correction d'épreuves de base à une littératie complexe. В статье описано, как учащиеся начальной и средней школы, которые имеют Интернет‐блоги, содержащие письменные (живой журнал) и звуковые (подкастинг) тексты, могут корректировать свои посты. Подкастинг и письменные блоги требуют работы как зрения, так и слуха. Кроме того, восприятие аудиотекстов и написанных текстов требует интерпретации текста читателем, а не автором. Поэтому корректура подобных текстов – это не просто проверка ошибок. Здесь задействованы более сложные навыки грамотности, такие как письмо, мышление высокого порядка и умение соотнести себя с аудиторией и понять потребности читателей. Мы назвали этот процесс “корректурой‐редактированием”, чтобы подчеркнуть его отличия от обычной проверки и исправления ошибок. Este artículo describe un proceso que les permite a bloggers en escuelas primarias e intermedias corregir pruebas...

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This commentary continues a dialogue which began among literacy teacher educators attending an alternative format session about mentoring in the academy at a national conference. Literacy teacher educators participated in an informal discussion centered on the nature of mentoring in the academy for doctoral students, untenured professors, and tenured professors. Doctoral students focused on their changing identities and roles in the academy, their concerns about navigating the political infrastructure of academia, and the importance of assuming a proactive stance towards obtaining mentoring, especially for part-time doctoral students. Untenured professors focused on the ways they were inventing and reinventing themselves within the power and politics of academia and their need for more holistic mentoring during these turbulent times. Tenured professors were able to embed mentoring experiences into their scholarly work and find ways to benefit or learn from mentoring experiences. These mentors also found comfort in more informal mentoring that included self-initiated endeavors centered on mutual interests. Our commentary draws on these discussions as well as the professional literature on mentoring to describe the importance of mutual trust and reciprocity in mentoring throughout all stages of academia with attention to cultural and linguistic diversity.