ZIS Learning

Establishing a School Blogging Policy

mrdilworth — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:47:21 +0000

Considerations

Blogging can be an excellent way to convey and share information but there are several points to consider as more individuals start to blog at ZIS:

Writing to a blog can mean sharing opinions in a public space, are you comfortable with that?
Blogging may mean adjusting your writing style for publishing online, getting to the point and adding visuals versus just text.
Should the school have an official Blogging Policy that will apply to all groups (admin, teachers, students, clubs and teams) that are blogging on the school network?
What are the most effective methods for Admin, teachers, and students?

Recommendations

1) Audit the ZIS online profile

2) Establish a school-wide Blogging Policy

3) Edublogs for Teacher blogging

4) Learnerblogs for Student blogging

5) Reconsider how the ZIS Portal can incorporate and link announcements, clubs, Moodle & blogs

6) Encourage the use of Creative Commons License on posted materials

Administrators

foster and nurture a culture of responsible risk-taking and advocate policies promoting continuous innovation with technology
facilitate and support collaborative technology-enriched learning environments conducive to innovation for improved learning
identify, communicate, model, and enforce social, legal, and ethical practices to promote responsible use of technology

Further Reading:

Why Blog as an Administrator? – PDF file

CASTLE – Principal’s Blogging Project

Leadertalk - School Leadership blog

International School Bangkok Director blog

York School Toronto Principal’s Blog

Teachers

design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources
promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information
participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

Further Reading:

10 ways to use your Edublog to teach

Patrick Holmes blog for US Design Class

Mark Dilworth’s education blog

Jason Welker’s class blog

Students

interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
exhibit leadership for digital citizenship
transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies

Further Reading:

Personal and Private Identity Information

International Student Blogging Project

Wikis

mrdilworth — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:38:02 +0000

A Wiki is a modifiable webpage that can be amended by anyone who accesses the page. Wikipedia is one example of a wiki as users can login to change, update, or delete information posted on the site. The are a number of wikis available for educators as well. They can carry out functions similar to a blog, however, by their design, wikis are much more open to collabration. The video explains how a wetpaint wiki can work.

Here are some sites where you can get started:

Wetpaint

Wikispaces

Blogs

mrdilworth — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:36:23 +0000

A blog is a customizable website that is designed to have regular postings of information. At the basic level, blogs can be used in education to communicate teacher ideas or for collaborative activities with students.

Here is a list of some of the common blogs sites used by educators. Sign up and set up are relatively simple and easy.

Web 2.0

mrdilworth — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:30:35 +0000

For the origins of the term, you can check out this article by Tim O’Reilly.

Many Web 2.0 sites have an option to sign up or register with the site. You should always read over the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service before contributing content to a site.

Web 2.0 includes websites that exhibit some of the following characteristics:

APPLICATIONS

The web site can deliver an application such as a video player, a word processor program or music player for example. The applications are embedded in the site and run online. In many cases, you do not need to install anything on your computer to run the applications from the website.

Examples: Google Docs Animoto LastFM

USER GENERATED CONTENT

Users can edit, manipulate or own the content they post to a site. The content is commonly in the form of videos, images and text.

Examples: Blogs Fan Fiction Creative Commons Trip Advisor YouTube
USER PARTICIPATION

User participation adds to the content of the website. This can be in the form of publishing user content or adding reviews of posted content. Even commercial sites like eBay or Amazon have a high level of user participation in the reviews of products and sellers.

Examples: Reviews on Internet Movie Database Delicious Wikipedia

SIMPLE INTERFACE

An easy to use interface can make the difference for a web 2.0 site. If it is difficult to understand or hard to create content on a site, users will be less likely to use and recommend it to others.

Examples: iGoogle Toondoo

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social Networking sites allow users to connect with other users. Some sites are purely social allowing users to connect with friends however, social networking sites can also create networks based on a particular theme. Social Bookmarking sites allow users to share their favorite links.

Examples: Facebook MySpace Hi5 Orkut CyWorld Digg