Blogs

What is it?

A blog (a contraction of the term ‘web-log’) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.  The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art, photographs, videos, music and audio, such as podcasting. Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts (source: Wikipedia).

• Blogs can be private or public.
• A blogger (a person who writes a blog) adds content to their site by writing posts which are published in chronological order.
• The most recent post appears at the top of the page.
• Readers can leave comments responding to individual posts.
• Pages can also be created for more static information such as 'about me'.
• Photos, videos, links and a wide range of web 2.0 applications can be included.

The Ultranet will have functionality enabling Victorian Government school users to create blogs.

What does it look like?

What's happening in Victorian schools?

• Global Teacher and Global Student blogs - The blogging environments were created to support Victorian teachers with blogging. They list examples of blogs created by teachers for professional or classroom use. Look at the links on the side bar.  Teachers can email global.teacher@edumail.vic.gov.au if they would like their blog added. Commenting on these and other blogs can be a good way to get started. See: Global Teacher and Global Student
• Blogging our curriculum vitae (Belvoir Special School, 2008) - New technologies were used to enhance the students' learning by providing alternative programmes and giving students with low literacy levels opportunities to achieve their VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) goals. The project focussed on intellectually disabled students. As a result, students created a class blog and learned how to make posts, read comments, insert photos and create photo stories. Students developed individual blogs which became their online curriculum vitae, presenting a collection of their achievements and showcasing their work. See: Belvoir Bloggers
• Ping (Hawkesdale P12 College; Heywood Secondary College; Casterton Secondary College; Casterton Primary School; Balmoral Secondary College, 2009) - An online music education project blog. This distance education program uses virtual approaches to enhance young people’s involvement in music. Students develop their own music composition using professional guidance and recordings from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra musicians. See: Ping
• ePotential - There are many excellent resources on blogging in ePotential. You can find them by logging in using your eight digit pin/TO number and then searching for 'blogs'.

How to guide

Setting up your blog

It is quick and easy to get started with blogging. Teachers can use the link on the Global Teacher page Get a Global Teacher blog and get started in a couple of short steps. Global Teacher has much of the same functionality as Edublogs and the helpful How to videos on the Edublogs site also apply to Global Teacher or Global Student blogs.

Global Teacher and Global Student

The blogging environments Global Teacher and Global Student were set up by Connect and the School Library Association of Victoria to allow Victorian teachers to explore the educational value of blogging. They are free to join and do not run any form of advertising. Both sites run as working blogs with new posts continually added. 

Users can sign up with their edumail address. Users who wish to use their school email, or another address, should email it to global.teacher@edumail.vic.gov.au. General email support for the sites is provided at this address. Users can also ask questions on the Edublogs forum (linked from the sites). 

Cybersafety

It is recommended that teachers become proficient with their own teacher blogs before creating any blogs for students. Teachers should always be the administrator for every student blog created for safety reasons. This allows moderation and the ability to edit content in student blogs, along with approval of comments that are added to the blog. These are approved via email. It is possible to have both the teacher and student as administrators.

To create student blogs, teachers should create a home blog for the group or class first at Global Student and use the blog and user creator to create student blogs. Each student blog should be listed as a link from the group or class blog for management purposes.

It is important to get permission from parents to create student blogs and publish student work or pictures to the internet. Teachers may wish to use the acceptable use kits provided by DEECD. Students should be clear that personal information such as full names or addresses should never be published on the web and should be aware of their 'digital footprint'.

View videos and explore lesson plans and online activities related to online safety at Learning On Line. It is critical that teachers are fully aware of their professional responsibilities in an online environment.