open the door…

The second task for the EdNA Blogging Course poses the following questions:

• Why do you blog with your students? What are your intentions? Have your intentions changed over time?
• Draw on your experiences both good and bad of student blogging. What have you done to overcome obstacles?
• Point to some other blogs of note either of students blogging or about students blogging. Would you recommend any particular blogs for others to read?
• Do you have any tips or tricks to share with educators just starting out or wanting to start a blog with their students?

These are great starter questions and I advise teachers who are blogging to drop by the Blogging Course to read the advice of experienced blogging teachers. Unfortunately I am no longer in a classroom and haven’t blogged with students since 2007 but am hoping that will change in the near future.

A couple of contacts who review for Fiction Focus, a publication reviewing Young Adult fiction resources for teachers and librarians, have asked for a ‘voice’ for their students – somewhere they can publish their thoughts about the books they like (or don’t like), to share their opinions with a world-wide audience. I am hoping I can get through the ‘red-tape’ of Acceptable Use Policies, Intellectual Property, online privacy … and negotiate the technology hurdles of access rights and permissions … and can get Principals and parents at the schools to agree to trial a student group blog.

Watch this space for further developments

… and just because I can … here’s a short video from Rachel Boyd in New Zealand about blogging with kids.