As it turns out however, the librarian at my school emailed me a few days ago because she wanted to try a blogging exercise this week with one of our third grade classes. She wasn't sure where to start and asked if I could help her. When I met with her later that day however, she told me that she wasn't sure whether the activity would even take place. It turns out that she shared her blogging idea with the administration, but it was met with resistance. They were concerned about the safety of the children, the reaction of the parents, and the potential for blogging to lead students prematurely to social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.
Things changed pretty quickly after that. With the help of our school's curriculum and technology specialist, the librarian finally got a hesistant go-ahead for the activity. It turns out that Edline, the program our school uses to communicate with parents and students, has a blogging feature that she was approved to use. Because Edline is "safe" and parents are already familiar with it, the administrators, despite their reservations, felt it was the best way to go.
Of course, the story doesn't end there. As luck would have it, my daughter is in the third grade at the same school where I teach. Yesterday, she brought home a note from the librarian (please note that I was ultimately not involved in getting the blogging activity ready) asking that she log on to Edline, select the library blog, and answer a question that was posted. I watched her as she did this and made the following four observations:
- My daughter was excited about going on a blog although she didn't really know what it was.
- My daughter wanted to read what her friends had posted.
- Entries can only be posted after a teacher has approved it.
- Students cannot respond to each other's comments, thus making the idea of blogging as conversational a moot point.
After seeing my daughter's reaction to the blog activity, I can see its potential for getting students excited about writing. However, I also think that blogging on Edline may be too regulated. One of the greatest strengths of a blog is its ability to connect people in continuous, written conversation, but Edline seems to limit this. What do you think? Do any of you have any experience using Edline's blogging feature?
3 comments:
I think that blogging is a great way to motivate students to write.I can see why the librarian is so hesitant to start the project. As long as the children has a permission slip this should alleviate any problems that were to come about in the future. That is great that you have your daughter to see first hand how the project is working. I also think that not having the conversation on the blog will take some of the fun out of the project. Keep the updates coming.
The students can comment on posts from other students. It is a setting that you can choose. Also, if a teacher prefers, they do not have to approve all the posts.
I would be happy to provide you with additional details on the functionality.
It isn't surprising that the administration was hesitant; however, aren't there settings on most blogging sites that let the user set it to private? Even MySpace and FaceBook allow the user to choose with whom they converse. I know that my kids have private profiles and unless they invite you to be their "friend" you can't access their site. They can also determine exactly what content they'd like you to see. I Would assume one could do that for a school blog.
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