I love that Margaret Simon has started a Sunday Link Up for posts about digital literacy at her blog to challenge us to share our technology journeys.
Today is not so much a blog post about something I'm trying out in my classroom, but a request for advice. This year I've created blogs for all my students (33 5th graders and 56 6th graders) on Kidblog. They have a requirement to write one Slice of Life a week and comment on three others. It has been an extremely rewarding experience. I have kept their Kidblogs private, but now would like to open them up to the public. I've enjoyed their Slices so much, and I'd love to expand their audience so they could get even more feedback. I've written and asked about this before, and I keep hesitating. I e-mailed all my parents about it and have gotten some very positive responses. What are your thoughts/advice/ideas about taking Kidblog public? Monitoring comments would be difficult for me because of the sheer volume of comments the kids give each other and the number of students I have. I'd love to hear back from you!
I highly recommend it!! I have 100 students with blogs. I approve all comments. I tell the students I approve in the morning and after school...sometimes during class. It usually doesn't take too long if I stay on top of things. Having real life audience outside of school is amazing! The students really respond to it. It is SOOOO worth it!! Share your link with us if and when you go public. We will all share with our students!! :)
ReplyDeleteOkay - so even with all those students, it's not too bad to approve comments? I think that's what would make me feel the most comfortable. Is there just one link that I will share when we go public that gives you access to all the posts?
DeleteNot at all. It's like anything else, just getting into a habit. I think you share your main teacher blog link and that gets us to all of their blogs. Margaret might know better. I'm using edublogs right now. Here's our blog: mshaseltine.edublogs.org. Stop by!!
DeleteI've commented about this before, I think. I don't have nearly the number to keep up with, but I do approve comments and posts. I have never had trouble with this. If you press on them the importance of their comments, and let them know you will be reading them, they should be OK. I would not have them sent to email, though, because it crowds your inbox. Maybe you could set a time each day to review posts and comments. Kidblogs makes it fairly easy to filter so that you only see the unapproved ones.
ReplyDeleteThe advantages to public is that you can share the golden posts with authors and parents, grandparents, and so on. My students have also been invaded by the one and only line lifter, Kevin Hodgson.
I think you should be able to go back to private if it doesn't work out. Maybe commit to public for the SOLC in March.
Margaret - I know I've asked about it before. I'm stressing! Ha. I just want it to be safe. I don't have trouble with the kids' comments to each other. They're doing a great job with that. I just don't want any comments from the outside that might be harmful.
DeleteHolly, in all of my time blogging with students (2+ years) I've had one spam comment from a snowboarding company. Nothing else!! Nothing harmful from the outside.
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