Tuesday 18 March 2008

Blogging for Beginners

What is a ‘Blog’?

A blog is an on line journal/diary that can be used as a means of easy web publishing. ‘Bloggers’ are able to publish text, photos, video and or links very easily. This means anyone can create and manage a website on any subject, all is needed is an e-mail address
.

Blogs are made up of posts or entries that are created regularly by the author/s. To create a blog you need to access a blogging tool, such as Edublogs, Blogmeister or by far the most popular and intuitive is.
www.Blogger.com

Why ‘Blog’?

There are many educational advantages to blogging such as:
- It allows the easy sharing of information eg news, homework resources etc
- It motivates children to become authors by providing children with an instant worldwide audience
- Offering a simple interface which allows work to be easily drafted, redrafted and edits to be made before final publishing
- Allowing children and adults to be part of an on-going discussion forum
- Creating excellent home school links, enabling parents to view an online record of work and events created throughout the year
- It taps into the tools young people use naturally to communicate online
- Providing educators with a tool for reflection and thought on their pedagogy

Blogging Safety

When blogging, there are a number of considerations that must be thought about by both teachers and pupils to ensure users feel safe and protected when online. Therefore blogging provides an excellent context for teaching e-safety and aspects of PSHE + C.

Recommendations for safety:
- Gain parental permission for posting photos/videos
- Avoid using full names of children
- Spend time educating children on appropriate posts and comments
- Consider moderating comments depending on the use of the blog
- If using Blogger you may want to remove the next blog button on the top navigation bar to avoid visiting unsuitable blogs
- Consider educating parents on the use of blogging

http://www.childnet-int.org/downloads/blog_leaflet.pdf

How to Blog

For detailed help sheets on:
How to blog
How to insert video
How to embed content - e.g. googlemaps
How to add links
How to remove the Nav Bar


Click here


Where does blogging fit into the Primary Curriculum


Monday 18 February 2008

Use the Activ Primary Board

Thanks to Adam at South Park, who put together this rather excellent help guide for Activ Primary 3. Click on the PDF Icon below to download this resource.





There are also some very useful videos on Activ Primary use on TeacherTube