WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
This post is targeted primarily at the teachers at my current school as a follow up to a 5 minute slot I did at today’s teacher training day. The focus of that slot was to highlight ways in which free and student-centred educational technologies can be used to engage learners. Read on to discover 5 ways in which we can engage learners using technology, starting with the easiest… 
1. Get a blog
A blog is not a difficult thing to set up - and it’s certainly a very easy thing to use. In fact, it’s top of this list because it’s the single most effective way of communicating with students who live in an increasingly digital world.
Whilst blogs can be set up for one-way communication (by turning off comments, etc.), I would discourage that. Set out boundaries with students and, if necessary, turn on the option to moderate any comments before they go ‘live’.
My learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk blog isn’t perfect, but it’s proved fairly effective in providing a way for students to get in touch. Most do so through email, although if you’re not comfortable with providing an email address that you only use for school-related stuff, leave it off.
Want to have a try? Head over to edublogs.org to sign up for their excellent free service. I provided a guide to this to all Heads of Department at my school before Christmas - just ask me if you’d like another copy! 
2. Use the technology they already have for learning
The average student, and especially those from more affluent backgrounds, tend to have technology coming out of their ears. I did a survey recently which found that over 90% of my GCSE students have mobile phones with Bluetooth functionality and over 80% have MP3 players (mostly iPod Nanos, actually).
We should be using these technologies to engage students. Whilst one should always follow school policy in these matters (I’ve already got into trouble for flouting that) I cannot help but think that sometimes we should explain to students that we’re using their devices for learning.
If, like me, you’ve lots of digital resources (worksheets, videos, audio files) that you haven’t got time to use in lessons, why not make them available to students anyway? You can convert videos to iPod-friendly formats easily (Windows, Mac) and put them on a website, burn CDs/DVDs to order, bluetooth them to mobile phones or put resources on the school intranet.
It’s easy to be cynical about these things, but since putting some audio and video files on my website, I reckon (from the web server stats) that around 5-10% of my GCSE students are accessing them. That’s 5-10% more students using materials voluntarily to further their knowledge, which has got to be worth it. And that’s just a start…
3. Set up a course wiki
A wiki is a website that any user with permission can edit - the most famous example being Wikipedia. This is useful for providing a knowledge base tailored to the specific needs, understanding and learning styles of the students in your classes. Whilst it sounds like it could lead to a free-for-all, again I’m using this successfully with my Year 10 classes at gcsehistory.wikispaces.com. Again, it’s all about setting boundaries.
One of the best ways of getting a wiki going is to plan out initial sections that need to be filled, have a lesson in an ICT suite, and then set a collaborative homework. As administrator of the wiki you get the option of having email updates as to the bits (highlighted in green) that students have added and the bits (highlighted in red) that they deleted. Thus, it’s easy to see who’s done what!
I’d recommend wikispaces.com to set up a wiki, as if you’re a teacher you can ask for the advertising to be removed. For more on tactics to get students going on the wiki, try wikipatterns.com. 
4. Connect to other classrooms using Skype
I should imagine that most people have at least heard of Skype. It’s a piece of software that allows you to make phone calls over the Internet. There are premium options and there are competitors (Gizmo, etc.), but the basic services of Skype are still fantastic.
The great thing is that you can use video when having a phone call. This could be used with a single webcam for whole classes to interview people, or many to have one-to-one conversations with other students around the world. Even with a microphone and a bit of preparation, this could work well.
This is not something I’ve actually done at my current school, although I do use Skype extensively at home to connect with other educators around the world. You may find Vicki Davis’ blog post on Skype illuminating (her Cool Cat Teacher blog is well worth reading!)
5. Get your students blogging
Although this will probably strike fear into the heart of many a teacher, it’s actually a great way to engage learners, especially those at GCSE level and above. It’s fairly simple process that goes something like this:
a) Explain the purpose of the blog (more interesting, a record in one place, can add media, etc.) and go through expectations and behaviour framework.
b) Take students to ICT suite to get them to sign up for a blog (or create one for them and give them their username & password)
b) Allow students to customise their blog.
c) Introduce features of blog, how they work, etc. (trust me, some teenagers don’t even have an email address…)
d) Get them to write an introductory post
e) Encourage them to write a comment on someone else’s blog post. Use sanctions really firmly against anyone who says anything stupid, emphasising this is going on the Internet for everyone to see.
f) Set a homework task with paramaters such as: write a post on X with 3 paragraphs, 3 pictures and 3 links.
g) Monitor the blogs by subscribing to the RSS feeds of both the posts and the comments for each using a feed reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines (what’s RSS?)
h) Smile as you know which have done their homework and which haven’t as they enter your classroom (most will have done, I would predict!)
Whilst I’ve made it hard for myself by installing reasonably complex software to do this at learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk/blogs, it can be done in a no-nonsense, straightforward way. Try learnerblogs.org, 21classes.com or Imbee.com (a secure social networking site I’m currently using with Year 7)
Staff at my school: please ask me if you want to set in motion any of the above. I’m friendly and will only advise in a non-patronising sort of way.
Regular readers: have I missed anything? What would YOU recommend?
Popularity: 5% [?]
Love some of the ideas here, I am working on introducing blogging to the pupils in my school, me and the techy have set up a wordpress site (here) on our server, which allows pupils to create their own blog. Going to introduce them to it next week during ICT club.
Any tips for the first lesson introducing it? and getting other staff to accept it?
Cheers Craig
I can only go off the experience I've had so far, but I would say that you should start in a normal classroom going through what a blog is (some won't know) and the very public nature of them. Stress equally the sanctions if they put inappropriate stuff in blog posts or comments and the fantastic opportunities they have through using their blogs.
There will be teething problems - there always are! Hopefully, however, you'll be able to iron these out if you take them to the ICT suite for the remainder of the lesson. Give them an activity to be getting on with - for example a blog post introducing themselves - whilst you sort out any difficulties.
Let us know how it goes!
Hi Doug - nice to read a case for the use of technology put in a straight forward way. I very much agree that these tools should be introduced to a class throughout the course of a year. With my Year 3 class we have just got into blogging using Dave Warlicks Landmarks ClassBlogmeister - sadly in the Autumn Term I was busy getting it unblocked plus we were not on an 'always on' internet link, but now we are there I get 7 year olds asking constantly if they can blog at pla and lunchtimes, plus some blog in from home ( we have just had a situation where one of our class has left for another local school - we have left her in our bolg and she now blogs from her new school - helping her keep in touch with her friends ). I intriduced my pupils to podcasting early in the year ( however I was doing the tech stuff ) - 2 weeks ago I showed the kids how to edit a podcast and now have a small core group of 4 who have recorded and edited their own short programmes which we have posted. These tech tools in a class become the norm - my pupils are not phased at all if when we get into class I tell them that an e-twinning friend of ours from Rome or Estonia - or an old friend of ours from New Zealand are online for a chat - we have learned more about culture in different parts of the world - time zones and the fact that it is not Spring all over the globe at the same time, from these contacts than you could teach in a hundrd dry 'old style' lessons.
I agree also with your other post about putting our content somewhere wher the kids can access it, we in my year group at school have just been networked (21st century huh!) and have put all of our photopacks, web links and new webquests onto the network for pupils to access for research or revision - it takes time but will be very beneficial in the long term ( plus making it easier for teachers to access relevant material.
Paul
http://class3hcefnfforest.blogspot.com
http://cefnfforest.podomatic.com
Excellent, Paul - very encouraging. Have you seen Tom Barrett's blog ? He's a primary school teacher doing similar things to you.
Keep up the good work!
Very much so Tom is in my bloglines aggregator and there is a link to his blog and yours on http://ddraig-goch.blogspot.com/ - I very much admired the work Tom was doing back in Oct-Nov on the use of Google Earth - he has I know gone on to work with the use of mobile phone technology in education. Thanks Doug - maybe we will meet again soon in the Ning NextGen Teachers Network.
Paul
I see you are feeling a bit more positive about life in teaching than you were a month or two back, we have to plough on with what we know in our bones is right - the rest will follow I am sure.
There are a few more ideas on the EffectiveICT.co.uk forum too - a bit more general in terms of ICT usage but these were the basis of the training session that my colleagues and I ran last term.
See http://www.effectiveict.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=1303
I've also just uploaded the booket I put together to go with the training.
@Andrew: Absolutely - and in fact the 20 Ideas series of posts (that I still haven't finished!) was directly inspired by the excellent work started there.
This post, as I said, is an introduction to the wonderful world of educational technology and how you can use it to engage learners. Once you (and they) are hooked, there's no looking back!
@Paul: Yes, teaching has its ups and downs - I'm certainly (and usually, to be honest) on an 'up' at the moment!
Hi Doug,
I'd be interested in hearing what happened after your training session. Have you noticed an increase in interest in ICT in the classroom?
I'm always on the look out for how people implement technology into their teaching.
I've been pretty pleased, actually, with the response. A couple of senior members of staff took me to one side saying they'd spend a good deal of time reading this site, the SEN department want me to help them build a website, technology want to get into vodcasts, the data manager took me to task about the use of CAT data until I cleared up a misunderstanding, and a few other people have said that my 2-minute slot was the most interesting thing on that training day.
It's all about a drip feed, I think, and not forcing things upon people. All I did, basically, was tell them what I've been doing and put my website and email address on the whiteboard behind me. Forcing educational technology down people's throats really isn't the way to go!