My student bloggers
I have been blogging since January, the class since February, some students since March and today I created the final blogs for individual students. Some students in the class decided they didn’t want their own blog after I mentioned a few rules. These were:
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Both the student and I are administrators until someone does something wrong – that person will then become an editor. As a class we have done a lot of work on being internet safe and also looking out for each other as part of life skills. Hopefully I will not have to demote anyone!
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They will have to write comments on blogs belonging to students in our room as well as those on our blogroll from other parts of the world.
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They will have to make sure they respond to people who write comments on their blog.
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They will have to write at least one BTN report on their blog every month and one post about something that interests them every month. So at least two posts per month.
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They cannot publish a post until they have emailed me, I have viewed the post and sent an email back to them with my approval for publishing.
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All photos must be sourced, preferably from Flickr Creative Commons or permission must have been gained from the photographer via email and acknowledged on the bottom of the post.
Am I being too tough on my students in grade 6/7?
I know this means a lot of work on my behalf reading posts before they are published and emailing back to students suggestions for improvement eg spelling and grammar. But at this stage of their blogging experience, I am prepared to put in the extra time.
I think your rules are just fine.
I only have my students create posts and comment on them on our class blog. All comments come to me first before going on the site. I guess I am a bit of a control freak, but I think this is also fairly safe.
Check out our class blog and leave a comment.
http://law30mont.edublogs.org
Also, two of my students creating digital projects. Check out the blogroll from the above link.
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I don’t think you’re being too hard on them. In fact, your plan of attack seems to be to be solid, and gives me food for thought for my class next year. How many students are you doing this with?
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Instead of reviewing each post, why not just keep on top of your RSS feed and take down posts after the fact? You can then use these to discuss what’s appropriate/what’s not and why you took it down. My experience is they’ll soon get the idea. Reviewing and approving each post seems to add an extra layer of work that for most will be unnecessary – do it for the rule breakers and suspend their blog if they have further infractions.
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It’s true, having student blogs creates a little more work for the teacher but the work is nothing compared to what your students get out of creating and connecting with others.
Your rules are fine. They teach students to connect with their audience, to continue the discussions on their work and also teaches responsiblity to respect ownership of others’ creations.
As Dan has mentioned, I also keep an RSS feed on the students’ posts and comments even though I moderate.
Thanks for the post.
GraceKat
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This is why I did a class blog instead of individual blogs. Some students would LOVE to have their own blog and will jump through hoops, but many aren’t that crazy about writing period to begin with and need it simple. Consider a class blog with students commenting, then giving students who want the extra control and are willing to do the work for it, their own blog.
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This sounds like a plan – and I think in due course you might be able to relax the pre-post review and just keep an eye on the feeds, but it is probably a good idea to check posts beforehand to start with.
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I think Dan’s idea is a good one. Part of students learning to blog will come through those kinds of teachable moments. I also think that if problems occur, the other students end up holding the person accountable in a way that’s far more productive than the teacher having to be the “bad guy,” policing everything.
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Miss W.
Although I don’t know to what age the expression “6/7 grades” corresponds, I don’t think you are being too tough on your students.
I agree with your commenters who say it is better just to link an rss feed to your students posts instead of previously moderating them all, one by one.
I believe that by doing this you will be strengthening their sense of responsibility and, at the same time, they will experience the “thrill” of freedom when publishing their posts directly to the web.
My students are 10 to 11 years old; in my country their grade is numbered as fifth grade; our elementary school ends at 4th grade, when they are 9. This year it has been their first year in “secondary school”, sharing ten different teachers on nine different subjects; it’s a difficult transition to them and we are trying to change this system.
My students are looking forward to visiting your students, and I’ll try to bring them in June, after our Challenge is over.
Ines
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@Dave – as a newbie blogger myself, I am also a bit of a control freak, but I have this week allowed three of my students to publish without having to get my approval. I have suggested though, that they let mum or dad see it first in case there is too much personal information involved.
@Dan – I have 29 students in the class and so far 20 have opted to have their own blog – the others are content just adding comments or perhaps sending a post to be published in a friend’s blog.
@John – a bit of hard work to start with, but I am gradually letting go the “blogger” strings – only the keen students have decided to have their own blogs so I shouldn’t have any problems.
@Grace – I have already seen their keenness and the shouts of joy when someone from overseas writes on their blog – they were also amazed with the Twitter chat with you – I am just opening their eyes to what is outside their little world here in Tasmania
@Alice and @Lindsay- that is precisely what I did – taught firstly about being internet savvy, then about blogging by setting up a class blog and showing how to comment. The keen ones wanted to write posts so I added them in, and finally they wanted their own. By the end of next term most of them will have full control and be able to publish without notifying me and I will use RSS feeds to check on them.
@Michele – luckily no problems yet and when I look at the students I have who are blogging, I doubt whether there will be any problems other than them being too keen and perhaps giving a bit too much info unintentionally about themselves especially regarding sporting teams.
@Inpi – grade 6/7 are generally 11-13 years old and I know their thrill of freedom – one student had his 13th birthday Sunday and on Monday morning he was adding a Weather pixie and feedjit map to his blog as I will not allow them to add widgets unless they are the correct age. The look on his face when he came in and found he could now add them was indescribable.
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I started a class blog just under a month ago with my students and found that at first, in commenting, they did not know how to comment appropriately. I did a few lessons with them on what would and would not be appropriate and I am finding that their comments become better with time. I think that they put positive peer pressure on one another to post complete thoughts with proper English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I really like your ideas about setting up boundaries for students’ own blogs. I plan to venture into this in the upcoming school year and it is helpful to hear some tips from people who are trying this already! Thanks!
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[...] has her own blog as well as links to her class blog and students pages. I have found her post My Student Bloggers to be particularly informative on how to implement student blogs. There are several requirements [...]