The Year 2 blog stats are going up all the time. So far today we have had 400 individual visitors, the highest ever. Whilst this is great, the number of comments are down (outside school hours). I’m beginning to think about reasons for this, and wonder what other people think. Is it just that visitors are using links and games from the site (which is great if true), that they are not finding anything of interest to comment on (which is not so good) or for some other reason.
For some time now, I have run blogging clubs for children at Chorlton Park. These have been popular and helpful in getting our kids to engage and learn using the blogs. However, lots of children wanted to do the things we did in school back home. This was harder as the children were often more able than their parents, and the parents had questions and concerns about the blogs. As a result, I have changed the format of these clubs.
Each year group from Year 2 to Year 5 will now get half a term of blogging after school on a Tuesday. I will teach parents with their children how to blog. When I canvased opinion, parents wanted to know about esafety (surprise surprise!), about basic blogging, and some wanted to know more technical things such as how to embed video and photo content. This is a wide range of skills. Perhaps more than I can teach in half a term with only half an hour each week.
As a result, I decided to make a series of video tutorials which covered the range of skills that the parents wanted to learn. I will teach esafety explicitly, and make it a condition of their attendance (important if they are then to learn how to embed video or photo content) I will teach them how to leave a comment, and then let them explore for themselves with the help of their children and the tutorials.
Another reason for changing the format of the club is to ensure that the blogs are continued when I leave Chorlton Park. I have asked a teacher from each year group to come and teach the club with me. It will provide a time and space for them to work alongside the parents and children on making their particular yeargroup blog active and engaging, and hopefully boost confidence in the staff.
I would be really interested in hearing people’s thoughts on this. Have I missed out any critical things to teach? What are your favourite ways of teaching esafety stuff? Do you have interesting resources to share? Do you already do something similar? Please leave a comment and let me know.
The tutorials are embedded below. Please use them in your blogs if you find them useful, but a link to the Year 2 blog and a credit would be much appreciated.
Really pleased with how my introduction to Voicethread went today. All children in my class registered and left comments: Look at the transformation!
They all know how to log into Voicethread now, and seemed excited about the idea. They especially enjoyed recording (surprise surprise…) and were keen to try webcam commenting. I have ordered a webcam for the classroom.
Our next project using Voicethread will be to develop a class assembly collaboratively online. Check it out here.
Contributions from outside the classroom are also welcome!
