The Ford in Torquay

This quote over at dblteach is definitlely going to feature in my presentation

I think the answer to the people (sometimes me) who complain about a loss of literacy is becoming apparent. Surely communication via the printed or spoken word is more intense now than ever. Voicemail or texting, blogs, podcasts, videocasts, all mix commentary with other forms of communication in exciting ways. Teenage bloggers often write far more creatively in their personal blogs than they do in the classroom. Jokes, puns, topical allusion, cynical/rueful aside, heartfelt commentary, angry denunciation, bursts of poetry or apposite quotation are all present in many of these often lengthy letters to the world

I thought I would ask my eight- and ten-year-old sons about their blogging and what they thought about moderation and other such issues. The interview can be downloaded below. It’s about 2 MB and 12 minutes long and features me at my most inarticulate. They make some interesting points though

Kids interview about blogging

Early in my career I worked at a school in which there was a real reticence among staff to use the large gymnastics equipment during PE sessions. There was a clear risk involved in letting the highly energetic children climb up the bars or use the beam. Stories were rife among the staff of pupils they had heard about who had fallen, broken limbs and been impaled on sharp pieces of wood. The equipment was also a real pain to get out and put away and the pupils needed reminding of the safety rules at the beginning of every session. They seemed to forget every week! The large apparatus was thus avoided and the risk of serious injury was eliminated. The children had to make do with floor exercises literally in the shadow of all the exciting gymnastic equipment.

When OFSTED came to call they did not accept that total avoidance of risk was an acceptable excuse for not offering pupils appropriate learning opportunities.The challenge of minimising risk while allowing pupils access to learning (and teaching) experiences is one that schools have to contend with in all areas of the curriulum every day of the week.

Fortunately, the this story has a happy ending. The teachers were given practical training, instilled with confidence when using the apparatus and were taught the importance of giving pupils ownership and understanding of the rules for safe gymnastic sessions. The minimal risks are still there but so is the gymtastic action!

The fears were quite understandable but in the end an acceptable solution was found because the school (not really under duress from OFSTED) believed that pupils needed to enjoy the benefits of gymnastics. Blogging presents a whole host of motivating opportunities for teaching and learning but is accompanied by challenges and some degree of risk. However, a solution-driven approach to enjoying their benefits is in the reach of all schools. The question is do they really want them?

Back in 2001 I approached Mike Roberts, the head of my school, with the encouraging results of my use of a class weblog to extend the learning community beyond the four walls of the classroom. We discussed the plan to allow my own 10 year old students to create and run their own fully-functional weblogs. As a good leader of a school, he asked all the pertinent questions about security, child protection and publishing to the web.

They are questions that are repeated every time I visit a school or speak at conferences about the potential of blogging as an effective teaching and learning tool. And rightly so… we must take every reasonable care to ensure that our children are safe from potential harm. That is also true of every activity across the curriculum.

Solution or Excuse?

Leaders and teachers who ask me about weblog security fall broadly into one of two categories - those who want a solution and those who want an excuse. The first group of people are driven by a vision of students and teachers publishing their thoughts and achievements with real purpose to a real audience. They find the answers to the legitimate questions of security and they begin to harness the potential of blogs at the chalkface.

The second group are those who are looking for an excuse not to make use of new technologies in general and blogging in particular. The vision outlined above is for them, not a price worth paying to find a solution for their security concerns. Full of negative sound-bytes and horror stories, they eliminate all risk by avoiding it altogether.

If my headteacher had been in the last category, then my students and I would not have had the freedom to be creative and innovative with blogs and we would have missed out on positive memories that will probably last a lifetime. However, it was a freedom that was well thought through. Mike and I looked at the risks and minimised them. We looked at dream- and nightmare scenarios and our possible responses to them. We made sure the pupils had ownership of the project throughout, with clear expectations, guidelines and exhortations to be creative. Then we were set free to explore!

Tomorrow … How to earn the freedom to blog!

Throwing this piece from Will Richardson into the mix. I can feel my thoughts beginning to mould into some kind of coherence about moderation, control and ownership. It is hard though when people keep throwing in good ideas and thoughts

Here’s another one from Garteh Davies -  ‘Positives and negatives of blogging’

Douglas Woods

I wonder though whether there is any age limit at which pupils can start blogging. Should blogs by pupils be moderated?

Terry Handley 

Should blogs be moderated? You could argue that this rather spoils the point and spontaneous nature of a Blog but I can understand why this issue is raised.

I beleive that if pupils are taught clearly what the rules are regarding the blog, what is and is not acceptable then to a large extent the blogs could be peer moderated with any abuse of the rules reported to the person (teacher?) nominated to oversee the blogs. Any breach of the rules could then carry consequences - again which could be decided by the class(es) involved.

On a visit to a school in New York I discoverd that this type of peer moderation worked well and that abuses were quicly reported.

So my answer would be yes to a certain extent but involve the pupils in this process

Are school blogs about the curriculum, or are they about the whole of learning formal/informal home/school? Or, how much control of content should be given to learners (and indeed teachers)? Miles Berry

How do you reconcile child protection with learner voice, ownership and writing for an audience? - Miles Berry

Wouldn’t it be good if there was a way of connecting with an audience before speaking at an event so that your session answered the questions they might have and demonstrated examples of what they really wanted to see?

Wouldn’t it be good if you had access to a platform that people attending a conference could use during a session to document their thoughts and questions?

Wouldn’t it also be good if you could have a platform to continue conversations after a conference session has ended?

I have created this blog to help me prepare for the blogging session that I am presenting at the Naace Conference in Torquay at the beginning of March. My usual blog is over at the Fordlog but I want to use this blog as a creative and collaborative space to document the whole show.

Initial questions…

To the world in general - What sort of stuff should I be covering in a blogging session with the great and the good of the UK’s educational ICT community as my audience?

To potential attendees - What questions do you have and what do you want to see in a blogging session?