Quality Blogging

What is a blog?

Definition:

Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what’s new page, or links to other web sites.
Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001

Why have we created a blog?

Our class blog is a way for us to share our ideas and our learning with you. Sharing our learning means that it is very important that we understand how to use the blog and the internet in a secure way.

The students and I will be posting content to the blog. We are all on a learning path together. All the students and myself  are first time bloggers.

As a learning tool blogging is a great opportunity for the students to create content, share, reflect on their learning, extend their knowledge and collaborate with others. Students will have the opportunity to post reports or reflections about their work. Using the internet students will have opportunities at school or at home (if internet access is available) to collaborate with their peers, and have opportunities to work with students from other classes, schools or even countries.

Blogging will enable students to have fun while improving their literacy, numeracy and ICT (Information Communication Technology) skills. It is also a great opportunity to establish early appropriate online behaviours.

Guidelines/Rules

The following guidelines have been established to ensure the safety of our students when blogging. The guidelines are also reminders of how to use the blog to improve writing and keyboarding skills.

• Student work will only be identified by first names. All comments should have first names only.

• Parents who leave comments are asked not to use last names either. (Please post comments as “Jimmy’s mum” or “Megan’s grandfather”, etc.)

• All comments submitted have to be approved by Mrs Potter before they are included on the blog. Inappropriate or sloppy writing will not be approved.

• Proof-read your comments carefully. Students should have a family member check for spelling mistakes before submitting a comment.

• Only Mrs Potter has access to post things on the blog. Later in the year, when students begin to write blog entries, they will go through edits and revisions before Mrs Potter posts them.

• Always write in full sentences and words – no “text talk” please!