Blogging
Blogging is like any other sort of publishing on the net. The golden rule is this: don't say or publish something on a blog that you wouldn’t put on a postcard.
The official guidance
Official guidance on blogging is lacking as the Home Office and such agencies take stock of the fast developments in this area. The Home Office provides guidance on internet technologies in general, in the following PDF file, but actively refuses to offer guidance on blogging:
'Until clearer patterns emerge, it is not possible for us to offer any definitive guidance about “blogging” but this may be something to be considered in the future.'
PDF file: Good Practice Guidance for Moderation of Interactive Services for Children (106 KB)Blog smart
A teacher or school should not encounter any problems if students adhere to common sense internet rules and 'blog smart'.
It is worth starting off a blog with pre-moderation of comments (which can be left anonymously or with a pseudonym) and perhaps pre-moderation of posts (when students post you do at least know who the author is if you set up the blog).
Internet safety - what to look out for
Ewan McIntosh, Development Officer for the MFLE and an adviser to external agencies on weblogging, recommends following the same 'surf smart' rules expressed in most school internet safety courses. This would include students, parents and teachers looking out for any of the following suggestions, requests or offers and to decide what action to take by talking it through with the management of the establishment. Above all, the opportunity to exploit the occasion for internet safety education with the child should not be lost if these situations occur:
- suggestions that a child leave a public blog space and move to private one-to-one communication such as instant messaging or e-mail
- asking for personal details: full name; address; telephone number; mobile number; name of school or a photograph
- asking where the home computer is located and/or about parental supervision of internet use
- offering opportunities to do modelling
- meetings with pop idols or celebrities
- offering cheap tickets to sports or pop concerts
- offering material gifts including electronic gifts such as games, music or software
- offering quick and easy ways to make money
- seeming eager to meet up offline.
Simple, sensible rules for blogging
It is also highly advisable to draw up a set of rules with the students. The following points are taken from rules written by students in a US high school after they used blogs in their classes. They should keep you and your students on the straight and narrow. Most of them are simply common sense:
- I will only use first names (and last initial if necessary).
- I will not gang up on anyone.
- I am responsible for anything posted in my name.
- I will only post links that are relevant to the topic.
- I will not plagiarise other blogs, but I can quote them.
- I will try to use 'correct' spelling.
- I will stay on topic.
- I will only link to appropriate websites.
- I won’t say anything I wouldn’t say in school.
- I won’t post personal information about other people or myself, including photographs.
- I WILL USE COMMON SENSE.
Download as a poster for use in the classroom.
A real-life modern languages example
The European Centre for Modern Languages BLOGS project is living out these issues, running a blogging platform with 90 students in 23 countries communicating with each other in foreign languages (English and French). As the workshop report says:
'Protected accounts offer a minimum level of safety, but it was generally agreed that education, not technology, should be the answer to these concerns. Blocking or limiting students' access to what is considered harmful technology may allay the legitimate concerns of parents and the school authorities, but does nothing to ensure that students will learn to cope with a technology they must live with.'
Read the full report here.