In this first entry I have picked an initiative that has made a big difference to teaching and learning in my classroom in 2010. Children in my class are really catching on and enjoying using Blogger as an eLearning tool. There are a few issues surrounding the legality of allowing 11 year olds to use Blogger. I was able to overcome this due to a chance conversation that I had with Dorothy Burt at the Learning in Schools Conference earlier in the year. She showed me how it was possible for me to personally own student's blogs while giving them the right to edit them.
Take a look at a couple of blogs from Somerville Intermediate's Room 28...
Getting your class started in Blogger involves the following steps:
1. Create a blog for each child in the class. You need to use a standardized format to make it easier for the students. For example I use sis (short for Somerville Intermediate School) then the students name (e.g. sonna) then 28 (which is our room number). This guarantees that I won't be denied the use of the blog title because it is very unlikely that anyone will own a blog titled: sissonna28.blogspot.com.
2. Next you need to create a Google account for your class to use. If you have a class email address just use this.
3. Now give the class account access to each blog as an 'author'. This is done in the Permissions area of Blogger.
4. You'll need to go into the class email address and confirm authorship to each blog.
5. Make sure students are aware of the expectation that they should only access their own blog and that they are NEVER to fiddle with the work of others. This is the only obvious shortfall with using Blogger in this way. You must remember that students have access to each others blogs because only one username and password is being used.
Please email me if you need any help working through this process.
p.crowhurst@somint.school.nz
Or may I suggest looking at Dr Vin who specializes in all things Bloggerish...OR... the ever informative blog of Dorothy Burt.
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