Class Blogging Reflections … Take 2

 In ‘Take 1’ of this topic, I set out to reflect on why the Carronshore class blog managed to survive successfully for 2 years … while some other class blogs seem to fail.

I want to add some more here about Jamie’s ‘secret’ gift for writing!

After he posted his story on the wiki, everyone in the class wanted to know where he got the idea from. It turned out that, as well as being an avid reader of certain types of books, he regularly logged on to his computer to play the online adventure game of RuneScape. More and more of the boys in the class logged on from home and became members.

Thomas was one of those persuaded to give it a try and I remember him writing about it ….. and I’ve managed to locate what he wrote (almost 2 years ago now?). It can still be accessed HERE.

The boys in the class took to writing about it in their spare time. They made little notebooks by stapling bits of scrap paper together, and regularly compared drafted stories. I tried, unsuccessfully, on a number of occasions to have the site unblocked at school (after much pleading by the boys). It’s a pity we weren’t able to make more of this great opportunity to motivate.

We had previously had some success with Samorost after having read about the great results blogged about by Kim (I think we’d have been able to experience the atmosphere much more had access to a whiteboard been available …. unfortunately, I’ve never had the luxury of having one in any of my classrooms).

Well …. that was yet another trip down memory lane 🙂 I’ve just realised, though, that this particular example demonstrates that even then there was a merging of the online / offline classroom, and that giving the children an online voice had an impact on the informal learning …… just as was demonstrated a year later when I studied things more closely when collecting evidence for my dissertation!

I see that Cassie has just given primary 5 L/W children a wikispace too. She also discovered this great site. It looks super – I’ve used it to leave a message for the children in her class …. hoping it works …. fingers crossed 🙂

 

 

 

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