Tag Archive | student blogs

Managing our Community

I’ve been following some recent posts about how to manage class blogs. The Connected Live blog mentions how John Connell points to a post entitled Class blogs – management, moderation and protection by Al Upton.

This blog mentions the ‘G-mail +’ option.

It’s very important to me that our community is a safe one. …  but I also want the children to have the freedom to have their own space and not feel that there’s a ‘Big Brother’ culture present.

So here’s what I’ve done to try to create that balance:

  • First I created a Class Blog so that I could give the pupils an audience for their work
  • Very soon after creating the class blog, I realised that it was important to allow access to the children’s own work so I created a wikispace for the class to post their writing
  • This didn’t work well, because if we all logged on and edited the space at the same time, problems occured (a ‘someone else is editing this space’ message)
  • I wanted the children to have their own blogs, but still have control over how they were used. I discovered that East Lothian could help me set up individual blogs . These children have now moved on to High School.
  • I’ve now managed to set up our own individual blogs without the help of East Lothian. ……  I discovered the ‘Gmail+’ trick. For example, If you have a ‘yourname@Gmail’ account, it’s possible to create lots of new blogs using that same e-mail address. You can do this by creating new blogs with a ‘yourname+student1@gmail’ , ‘yourname+student2@gmail’ etc.
  • One advantage is that, although the pupils have admin rights, the teacher can also login to the blogs at any time.
  • Another advantage is that any comments appear in the teacher’s Gmail account – even although the children can moderate them, the teacher has a record of what has appeared
  • It’s quite easy to keep track of what is being posted on the children’s blogs by using ‘google reader’, or something similar
  • I’ve since discovered that Wikispaces will set up separate username and passwords for students if you email them the information required.

It all seems to be working well so far 🙂 ……..

Continuing Conversations

 The ‘World of Work’ posts are still appearing on the pupils’ individual blogs. The children’s posts now show evidence of building on the ideas expressed by their peers. They’re referring to each others’ blogs – some even adding links. I’m glad now that I made the decision to ‘take a step back’ and allow things to develop naturally.

A few children who don’t normally ‘blog’ from home are beginning to do so. For example, Russell  recently updated his blog so that he could join in the ‘conversation’:

“One of the hard things in life is choise some are easy like what should i wear and others are hard like what car to buy. BUT THE HARDEST ONE IS WHAT JOB TO HAVE BECAUSE THERE ARE LOADS. When i grow up i would either like to be a normal police officer which is like solving crimes and stuff. Or in the traffic police, which is like catching speeders and arriving at motorway accidents or illegal number plates. Or be in the armed responce unit which are the police with guns and go to accident which suspects are armed. ”  

Jaydean also wrote from home:

“Our class, P7V had a visitor, Miss Hart. Miss Hart is a journalist, she told us a lot about journalism its made me think. I love performing but journalism sounds quite fun. My passion is to perform as I love singing, dancing and acting but if anything goes wrong and Im not able to perform, I’ll consider being a journalist. Just as my friend nina said in one of her posts there are so many desisions!!!!”

Other children who don’t normally blog are choosing not to write about the ‘World of Work’ thread, but are posting new topic conversations.

For example, Kieran S recently posted:

“I am going on a trip to Ardeonaig. On the 9th to the 20th of may you get to go lots of places like up a mountain and go Canoing. You get to go on the high ropes there is a games hall to there is lots more stuff.I went last year to. With my friends Russell Adam and Stewart It was SO funny. but the bad thing is that you have to do the cleaning up after you has finish your dinner. It is still very good. one of the funny thing that happened was when Russell and Adam put Stewart’s pajamas in to the water and he had to take my one’s but it was not funny for me. I hope i have fun when i go.bye”

Courtney wrote:

“hi well i know that i haven’t been on but ive been bizzy well you know that i’m in da scouts so you might know that i do badges well i’ve been doin ma photogrephers badge and we’re doin five aside footi and goin up kanarde wood oh and a beaver trail. finaly were goin t a bothy but i dont know if i’m goin as it’s two hours in a bus and it is really snowy so it will b cold in da tent!!!!”

The children who do tend to post in their own time are becoming more adept at it.

For example, Anna wrote recently:

” I’m gettting the hand of writing posts now! At first i was totally stuck but now i write about anything really. I like to comment on other peoples blogs to,especially people from the allstars and even our class write gr8 posts that you have to comment on. I reccomend Moni’s Blog, Because she has lots of posts about what we have been up to in p7v. I also like looking at Beki’s Blog because she has interesting posts like book reviews and stuff. Ninzy’s Blog. I like to look at other peoples to but i dont have time the now cause i’m going out with my little cuz. …To be continued D

 Maryam tends to write posts regularly. A recent post received a number of comments. One of them was from Nadine  from  Allstars.

Nadine commented:

‘Hi Maryam!!! )
I am Nadine from The o8 Allstars!! I am from Australia and i am almost twelve years old.
You sound like a really nice person and i’d really like to be a friend!
Anyway, i am soooo into writing too! My whole class says i’m so good too.
I want to be a writer so badly!!
I might be a doctor too, but i hate having to inject needles and see blood! (

I’ll need to devote some time to investigating the impact of comments on postings 🙂

So What IS Happening? …Post 2

 The idea of ‘online and offline’ co-existing communities is something that Victoria suggested I look at in my Case Study: She suggests looking at:

  • whether the use of co-existing online communities enhances and/or changes the offline context of my classroom;
  • whether it shifts the ways in which both myself and the children in the class conceptualize and operationalize curriculum;
  • whether I find myself changing the ways in which I teach and deliver curriculum.
  • I think that some of these issues can be addressed following some recent activities on the pupils’ blogs.

    clue2.jpg

     Maryam posted this on her blog early in January:

    “I’ve been thinking on being a book writer.Well,i dont know yet but i love reading books and i always like writing stories.I might start writing more on my wiki.My room has quite alot of books flooding everywhere.He He!Anyway i was wondering if you could give me some tips how to be a good story writer.”

    I posted a comment that led me to thinking about introducing the children to different Learning Styles. The children were very keen to find their preferred style. The quiz they took can be found HERE. This led them to want to research what job they might be most suited to .. and they began to Blog about this.

    I think  Ainsley  was the first to post.

    “i just love reading books i dont know how i just love it. I love to write stories and read stories. when i am older i want to become a writer and write lots of things ( but i dont know yet what i am going to write hehe.I love scary books , sad books , adventure books and etc. I dont read the news paper because i find it boring and i just dont like to read it but every thing else is fun to read. maybe you should try to rite your own book and i will to. i will come back to you when i have wrote atleast 4 pages hehe”

    Nina wrote a great post at home one evening. It was obvious that she had put a lot of thought into writing it, and when I noticed it on ‘google reader’ that evening, I decided that I would share it with the others the next day ………. it’s interesting that after the post had been shared, there was a spontaneous ’round of applause’ and when she got back home, she re-vamped her post by adding paragraphs and some more interesting words and phrases here and there (audience awareness?). I’ve included a bit here:

    “Decisions.There is so much decisions in life there right infront of you,some are hard and some are easy(i tend to ask for advice on the hard)

    Like one for example what should i have for breakfast?But the one thing that is the hardest i think is what your career should be.Well when we were young we all wanted to be heroes and heroines like firemen,Police,Vets,doctor,teachers,dancers and more.But when you get older you start to think more about this. I’m not old enough to get a job yet of course but it just makes me think.

    I wanted to be a Ballet dancer when i was small but i don’t go to dancing because of my spine, therefore ballet is not a job option for me as things have changed.Well i think if i go to Uni or College i could become most of the things because i think i’m quite clever not at language though,i don’t like it.

    Here are a few jobs i’d like to do and why.Well my first one is a Journalist i’d like to do this because i like to find out things and it would be interesting and i think i’m alright at writing.I’d like to get in touch with a newspaper and get better at my writing…….”

     Anna then wrote:

    Nina’s Post kind of got me thinking…There are a lot os Desicions in life.I guess we make never really think about it!Well when i’m older i really want to be something along the lines of a Journalist. (eg;Fashion magazine editor;Write:Journalist) That kinda stuff.One time i considered being a Police woman but then i though nahh…The uniformas are hideous!! No i’m joking really i think if i were a police Woman I might get hurt or something ( So basically this post is to say thanks to Nina For giving me a  bit of a boost and stuff like that haha xbye xxx”

    Miss L is a final year Bed student in our class at the moment. She was keen to set up her own blog and added a post to join in with the ‘conversation’. A short extract is below:

    “I thought I would write something about this as so many of you have. Although I have not fully entered the world of work officially I am nearly there! Fingers crossed anyway!Where to start? Well, when I was wee I always wanted to be a teacher. I used to make my little brother sit and listen to me when I pretended to teach him! I used to have to bribe him with sweets etc! However, when he got a bit older he did appreciate the help with his homework so I think we both benefitted from it!…………………..”

    Bethany added this post just this weekend:

    “I didn’t really know what to write a post on and everyone seems to be writing about what they want to be when they are older. It got me thinking of how many choices we actually make in life. I mean there is little ones like what will i eat for breakfast? or what will i wear tomorrow? There are also bigger choices like Will i buy the game i want that is £45? The choice that quite alot gets to me is what i want to play when i go to my friends houses. I can never seem to decide. I think a reason for that is that you are worried incase the persons house you are at does not want to play that thing and you are making it boring for them. Another choice that is hard for me is what i want to be when i am older? When i was smaller i used to want to be a ballerina or a nurse but now that has changed especially because i dont really like programs that they cut people open and things. I just personally could not do that and i cant understand how some people can do that! I also used to want to be either a vet or a teacher until i found out that being a vet can involve putting animals down.:( ! A teacher i am still considering with about a million other jobs. If you think about it there is so much out there so i will just have to go with the flow and see what life throws at me!”

    Monica joined in only today:

    “When i am older i would like to become a singer. I would go on the X factor. I have always been quite shy. So that would be a thing i would need to work on. I am not sure if i am a good singer or not lol. Its hard to say when your friends say you are good but then all the boys say you are rubbish. The only thing is i am not sure about going on the X factor is i might go on and make a fool of  my self if i cant sing lol. But i will give it a try in the future.

     Another job i would like to do is be a teacher. I would like to teach primary schools. Also i would need to be more confident to be able to speak in front of people. These are only two jobs i wouold like.

    Bye x

    Do you think i should go for the X Factor when i am older?”

    So to return to Victoria’s email suggestions:

  • whether the use of co-existing online communities enhances and/or changes the offline context of my classroom
  • I have lots of thoughts on this and will devote a post to the topic 🙂 

  • whether it shifts the ways in which both myself and the children in the class conceptualize and operationalize curriculum;
  • whether I find myself changing the ways in which I teach and deliver curriculum.
  • Although these two issues need to be looked at very closely, it is a fact that the ‘Learning Style’ quiz idea came from reading a post on one of the children’s blogs. I’ve also arranged for an author and a journalist to visit the class because of the interest shown in these careers in the recent blog posts quoted above …………

    ….. and If anyone knows a famous X Factor star, I’m sure that Monica would be very happy if you could arrange a class visit 🙂

    So What IS Happening? …Post 1

    In her email to me, Jackie‘s thoughts included:

    •  the idea of exploring the area of gendered representations of identity

    She was referring to the children’s use of ‘weemees‘ to represent themselves.

    wee-adaml.png    wee-darrenm.png   weekierans.png     wee-fraserm.png

    weebethanyr.png    weeninam.png   weejaydeanc.png    wee-sophie.png

    The children had great fun designing their characters. The girls (2nd row) all spent a lot of time getting their weemees to look like themselves …. eye colour, hair colour, face shapes, etc. The boys (top row) are less recognisable! They’ve designed characters to depict their interests. I know, for example, that the boy represented in the first picture is very interested in characters in computer games (this also shows in his imaginative writing tasks). The ‘guitar hero’ doesn’t really look like his creator, but I know that he does enjoy playing the guitar.

    Jackie also highly rated:

    • the importance of allowing the children to drive the use of the blogs

    I’ve tried very hard this session to make sure that this is the case and have just carried out a quick review of what has happened over this last month.

    I looked at gender and types of posts. Here’s my ‘snapshot’ view of the situation in the month of January (2008!)  ……… learnerblogs was VERY slow tonight, so may have got fed up waiting for a few of the blogs to load 🙂

    Girls …. 30 posts

    Boys …. 24 posts

    I broke down the post into types:

    • basic pictures from web
    • what’s happening in class / school
    • playing with codes
    • own thoughts

    The ‘breakdown’ is as follows  – girls are blue, boys are red

    Basic pics from web – 0                10

    Class/School posts   – 12               10

    Playing with Codes   –  3                 0

    Own Thoughts          –  15               4

    These numbers are just for January .. the bigger picture might be different 😀

    Literature Review … Final Piece of the Puzzle!

     Previous post recap ………..

    “The report goes on to say that it’s not about trying to formalise the informal; rather it is about using this newly emerging third space in ways that stimulate students and enable them to transfer their skills.”

    8447942_772727171.jpg

    Wikepidia states that :

    …………….”The Third Place” is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace.  In his influential book The Great, Good Place, Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

    Oldenburg coins “first” place as our home and those we live with. Our second place is the workplace — where we may actually spend most of our time. Third places, then are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in our day is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to our current societal needs……..

    Konrad Glogowski  

    ……. has noticed that the online community he has built with his students every year often resembles a “Third Place”. He decided to investigate what contributes to this development. He discovered that ensuring that certain features and freedoms are in place before learning begins can have a strong impact on the development of a classroom community.

    …………….. he says that he tries to ensure that the online environment he prepares can grow into a vibrant and engaging community. His idea is to ensure that the students see the online environment as their own – not merely an extension of the classroom, but a place where they feel free to interact and write as individuals.

     Stephen Heppell 

    ………….. spoke to Learning and Teaching Scotland about online learning communities, and stated that technology has given us a much flatter playing field. He suggests that young children online can have the freedom to whoever they want to be – and that means that they can take part in really engaging debates.

    He is of the opinion that it’s always fascinating to see what happens when children learn together and has witnessed quite remarkable progress. For example, he recalls a primary school child who was leading an online debate about badgers – everybody else in the debate had a PhD and was average age 28. It wasn’t possible to tell she was a primary school child – she was out researching like mad to make sure she stayed ahead of the people and that she knew what she needed to know!

    Jackie Marsh  

    ……………. writes that, because of the range of learning opportunities presented by digital technologies, new pedagogical approaches are needed in schools if the curriculum is to be sufficiently engaging and appropriate for children and young people. She believes that it’s essential that schools offer opportunities for all children to become competent and effective analysers and producers of a range of multimodal texts and artefacts. 

    Jackie worked with Peter Winter on a project where the pupils blogged about Dinosaurs. As the topic was negotiated by Peter and a teacher in the USA, Jackie writes that ownership of the project was somewhat limited ……… but that the children were free to use the blog to engage in the topic in whichever way they wished to, which led to a range of creative and imaginative work. She goes on to say that:

    ” …….enabling children to create blogs based on their own interests and experiences, rather than linked to a classroom-based topic, might offer opportunities for children to create networks of peers interested in similar topics, thus offering valuable learning opportunities with regard to social networking software (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006).”

    Jackie is of the opinion that the affordances of blogs mean that they are ideal formats for displaying aspects of one’s identity, and quotes Victoria Carrington:

    “……….these texts are signposts of the kinds of practices with technology and text that may be socially useful in developing and displaying self-narratives — layered, networked texts, multimodality, the continuous and conscious slide between online and offline. (Carrington, 2006, p. 11)” 

    The idea of ‘online and offline’ co-existing communities is something that Victoria  suggested I look at in my own Case Study:

    • whether the use of co-existing online communities enhances and/or changes the offline context of my classroom;
    •  whether it shifts the ways in which both myself and the children in the class conceptualize and operationalize curriculum;
    • whether I find myself changing the ways in which I teach and deliver curriculum;
    • whether a school-sourced online community will have the same features and adoption as one created by the children outside school.

     

     

    OK …. that’s the Literature Review bit (and blogging it as I went along has definately helped!).

    Now moving swiftly on to the ‘Implementation’ of the Plan………….

    Back to the Keyboard!

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     A few days ago, I logged on to my email account to discover I had 2 new comments on this blog. They were both from Kim who has agreed to be my critical friend throughout this dissertation ‘experience’! I’m so grateful for these comments – they’ve ‘kicked me into action’ again. They were both very thought provoking .. I’m still contemplating them 2 or 3 days later 🙂

    They can be found on this post and on this other post.

    In my previous post I had written,

    “When I asked them about their preference to using Bebo versus their Individual Blogs, I was really surprised that they thought that the Bebo site was ’safer’. They thought that it was safer because they had all opted to choose the ‘only friends can see my page’ option. They felt that there were no worries about ’strangers’ looking at their site – they were in control? They mentioned that the ‘public’ option on Bebo was for older people (bigger brothers and sisters)     .……… so do they feel uncomfortable with their individual blogs?? Too exposed?”

    Kim’s comment prompted me to investigate that issue more fully. Today in class, the children explained that it wasn’t that they felt unsafe using their blogs, but that they realised the dangers of placing individual photographs on there, or mentioning surnames, etc. These are things they feel that they can do on their Bebo sites because only their chosen friends can view these things. It’s not a case of them feeling uncomfortable with our Individual Blogs, just an awareness of the need to be more vigilant.

    In her second comment, Kim asked,

    “Maybe it comes back to the whole purpose of blogging in your room – have you discussed this with the kids? What do you use your blogs for?”

    I found this a difficult question to answer. I think maybe there’s not just one purpose. I explained in the response that I’m trying not to allow them to become ‘teacher directed’. At the moment, for example, we’re writing group stories that will be turned in to Playscripts. Some groups are writing these on their wikis, some prefer to use paper and pencil. We aim to eventually act out these plays and video them for the blog…… that’s the plan, anyway 🙂

    We’re also about to begin our WW2 topic. Before we do that, we’ll try to get a sense of history by making up good interview questions to ask an older member of the family. Some might choose to note down the responses, some might make a podcast and others have suggested carrying out a telephone interview.

    Thanks again to my critical friend for helping me to keep focused!

    Maybe it’s time to remind myself of the questions and aims I set out at the start of this dissertation journey ………. I’m finding that it’s vey easy to wander off the track:)

    Question:

    • Can Weblogs and Wikis and other associated emerging social software tools be used to create an effective on-line learning community?

    Aims:

    • To investigate the useful features, and barriers, when using blogs and wikis in a supportive on-line environment
    • To set appropriate tasks and to guide and monitor progress
    • To evaluate motivation, as well as formal and informal learning

    Classroom Conversations

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    I’ve been contemplating Anne’s feedback on my draft research plan. She commented that it would be: 

    ‘…………. interesting to keep an eye on gender issues (what is the gender breakdown of your group?), and on the kids’ reported use of social websites, etc at home’

    Well … there are 26 pupils in the class – and the gender breakdown is half and half (Stuart F has recently moved to another school).

    We had a conversation in class recently because I wanted to know if any of them used social websites. I thought that the answer would be that the the majority were using MSN, and that none were using MySpace or Bebo. I was honestly surprised at the response, and began to scribble down notes because I wanted to record the conversations as accurately as possible. Here’s a breakdown of the conversation ….

    MSN users … 16 pupils out of the 26 ( 11 girls and 5 boys) use MSN regularly. 7 girls and 1 boy use MSN daily. The rest use it at least weekly and there was no real difference between the boy / girl ratio.

    None of the children use ‘MySpace’, but 11 of them said that they had Bebo accounts (6 girls and 4 boys). None of them used Bebo daily, but they did all use it at least 2 or 3 times a week.

     When I asked them about their preference to using Bebo versus their Individual Blogs, I was really surprised that they thought that the Bebo site was ‘safer’. They thought that it was safer because they had all opted to choose the ‘only friends can see my page’ option. They felt that there were no worries about ‘strangers’ looking at their site – they were in control? They mentioned that the ‘public’ option on Bebo was for older people (bigger brothers and sisters).

    ……… so do they feel uncomfortable with their individual blogs?? Too exposed?

    Tutor Feedback!

    I’ve received feedback from my tutor and she’s given permission for it to be posted on this blog so I’ve included part of it here:

    “……….My starting hypothesis would be that those who work in an online environment would be a self-selecting group of fairly self-sufficient individuals, in which case there might not be a lot of chatter in the system. There is, I think, some danger that the success of the environment is judged by the volume of chatter, which I think would be a mistake. There’s also a thing about work process, and the extent people want to share their deliberations. Not everyone is the same. In our group, there are people who email me directly; and there are others who prefer the Discussion Board. And these things will vary according to contingent factors. Work pressures will mean that some people will prioritise the Discussion Board over responding to individual emails; and others will do the opposite; and yet others will do one thing some of the time and the other at different times, in a rhythm that is difficult to predict. An online environment can’t be successful if it imposes a work pattern………. Anne”

    In considering Anne’s response, I’ve tried to analyse the online environment created through the use of our class blog, individual blogs and wikispaces. I need to respond in ‘bite sized pieces’, though (because there’s a lot to digest!) so it may take a few posts to respond to all the points.

    This post includes my first thoughts about just a bit of the feedback:

    I agree totally with Anne’s interpretation of our adult use of the Blackboard learning environment for the Chartered Teacher course at University of Paisley. I’ve never felt comfortable using the Discussion Boards (even after 4 years of studying in that environment) but have always been an ‘enthusiastic lurker’!

     In the past, I’ve had to force myself to participate just to be seen to be a part of the community. I’m not sure why it’s always been a poblem for me …….. and why is that I’m perfectly comfortable posting to our class blog (surely posting to the WWW should be more scary than posting in a much more private Blackboard setting)?

    Although I’m comfortable enough posting to the class blog, it has taken me a long time to feel even remotely comfortable with the idea of having my own personal blog. However, here I am – and it’s ‘my own space’ (and personalising the blog with my own Header seemed important).

    I think that the notion of a ‘personal space’ is also very important to children. Last year our class won a local ICT competition. At the time, Ewan McIntosh   posted a response on his blog which included our ‘winning formula’ for providing a successful blogging platform for the pupils. He mentioned that the environment had to be:

    • “stable
    • easy to use
    • part of a community (the Falkirk school have created several individual pupil blogs which are all interconnected with each other, as well as connected with students and schools outside Scotland)
    • personalisable (this means really personalisable – the kids have control of every detail on the page to make their site feel like theirs, not some centralised silo-ed academic project).”

    I think that I’ve continued to allow the children in this session’s class build their own personal space so that chatter, informal learning and formal learning can co-exist, and that I’ve resisted imposing a ‘work pattern’?

    I think that Anna’s blog is a particularly good example of this?

    A Critical Friend response would be just great at this point 🙂 ……… and a big THANK YOU to Kim for agreeing to being my online critical friend! I’d really appreciate any comments 🙂

    Research Thoughts

    Oh dear … judging by the comments on my first post, at least 2 people are actually reading this blog now !! I’d better come up with something worthwhile – here’s kind of where I’m at with the research …. The podcast link is very ‘Pinky and Perky’ sounding, but it seems to work perfectly if you click on the word link next to it.

    I have been working hard on coming up with a clear ‘research focus’. Although we have a class blog and the pupils all have their individual blogs and wikis, I want to ‘move on’ with this and investigate whether it’s possible to create an online learning community. I touched on this during an ‘E-Learning’ module last session.

    I’ve discovered this blog. Konrad Glogowski’s thesis for his PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto focussed on the use of blogging communities in education. His work was with pupils a little older than mine ( I teach p7 – his pupils are 13 – 14). He talks about how to prepare an online space for learning and plan a learning community. I enjoyed listening to his podcast and I’m looking forward to seeing if his ideas can work successfully in my own situation.

    He also refers a Ray Oldenburg’s research into classrooms as ‘Third Places’ ?

    Possible question :

    Can a learning community emerge naturally by providing a supported environment for online learning? (needs a lot of tidying up!)

    Aims:

    • create learner centred environment where participants have the freedom build and maintain their own on-line presence (I think this is already in place??)
    • encourage expressive writing to move beyond just what is being taught in the classroom. Use scaffolding to allow freedom to interact and form social networks
    • teacher’s role is to be part of the community, so I need to set up my own personal blog, too, and read others’ blogs – not evaluate them by focussing on ‘secretarial’ skills/errors
    • give them easy access to the conversations (I use google reader – this can easily be set up by the pupils as well by having them copy and paste the OPML file??)

    It’s early days, so I’ll probably change direction a few times. Today we did look at other blog posts, but before we could do that one boy came rushing over because he had received a comment on his blog from a boy in a school in Inverness. We couldn’t link back to his blog, but a google search solved the problem and we found the link. We knew the blog was about football, but it didn’t make too much sense because it was full of large empty gaps (Daily Motion is obviously banned in school!) The big question from some of the boys, though, was … ‘Can we have a football blog?’

    There are other blogs on the Dingwall site, too ……. my answer was, ‘Well, OK – maybe. What about using our wikis ?’

    Anyway, thanks for the comments so far …… Kim was right – the 2nd post was just as much hard work as the 1st! Maybe Kim and John could be my Critical Friends 🙂 …….