Some time later

So what is the outcome of my blogging experiments with 40 year 9 students? The easy stuff first.

The mechanical: Blogger seems to be a good platform for class groups - I can easily create a list of the class' URLs and add these to our intranet - thus making it easy for students to access each others blogs. Students sometimes have access problems - in most cases the problems relate to a typo (in the email address) when they setup their accounts. For the handful of students with this issue some 1:1 time resolved the issue.

Security: Nothing inappropriate appeared on the blogs from outside sources though there were a few instances of students writing silly stuff on either their own or classmates blogs. I did inform the parents what were doing but had no feedback from any of them.

Learning outcomes: Blogging is time consuming when you see the students for only 1 hour per week. 3-4 hours would be typical to get a student setup and fluent with the various tools of a blog. My big picture goal was to get the students setup and then for the students to use their blogs in their core classes (3 or 4 hours per week). This didn't happen! I was aware the core teachers had limited access to computers. I assumed they would frame the learning (using their laptop and data-projector) and then get the students to use their blogs at home where they all have access.

Not so. About 1/2 of the teachers didn't see a place for blogging in their learning. The other 1/2 were concerned about security - they didn't see a difference between Blogger and MySpace or Bebo. Both of these have got a lot of negative press this year. Our teachers often said they would not allow their own children to access any blogging tool.

In 2008 I'll try again. I know teacher education will be the key. They need to know the kids will be safe and there will be some educational benefit.