The highlight for me of the whole conference was the Bloggers’ Cafe. Jane first promoted the idea and gosh it was successful.
We even had our T-shirts printed to celebrate the event. I’m not sure that Ewan thought that we were the full quid actually with our virtual toys and T-shirts and ribald Twittering and Skyping!
Jane’s photo of us all (minus a couple) is really useful as it gives links to people’s blogs- to see the links just click on the photo to get taken to the Flickr pages and hover over people with your mouse to see the person’s name and their blog. These people are all in my Bloglines and in my mind and now in my heart.
We made friendships through our kindred spirits- no digital holidaymakers here! These people are all passionate about what they do and the way they do it. Ewan Macintosh from Scotland fitted in so well with the group and we all quickly adopted him as one of our own.
Great photo Allanah. Sorry I wasn’t there but… Also decided not to lug my laptop around on Friday so missed all the tweets! Nevermind I get to spend a whole day with Ewan 2morro at a workshop in Hamilton re Web 2.0 tools.
So sorry I missed the photo op. I concur, the blogger cafe was such a highlight. It was great to feel more like a community together. The F2F time was so valuable.
I really enjoyed your company, half bob or not 😉 You’re some great people, and I hope we can meet again for more thinking and fun.
Hi Allanah
I have a presentation to do which focuses on the impact of blogging on home school relationships. I would love to include a range of responses from other teachers, students, parents who use classroom blogs. Because of your wealth of experience and generosity in sharing it would be wonderful to have your thoughts.
Something to comment on?….
What tangible differences has classroom blogging made to the interconnectivity between the home, community and
– students
– teacher
What feedback has the school received from your parent community on this involvement?
What are some of the issues to consider?
Any other relevant comments would also be appreciated.
Allanah, with your commitment to using these Web 2.0 environments you may already have some comments posted on this. If so, can you please point in their direction.
Many thanks
Lorraine
So sad not to be there – but I was in spirit. I sat in the Navcon keynote with twitter and followed Ulearn, and read all the jottits. I would have loved to be there, but Navcon was very good too. A pity they are on the same week – bad organising.
Hey Lorraine,
In reply….
What tangible differences has classroom blogging made to the interconnectivity between the home, community and
– students
– teacher
Parents check the blog on a regular basis and comment- most often orally about the the things we have been doing, bringing them into the classroom and taking the walls down. Children show their parents what they have done and some have started blogging themselves, commenting on each others blogs and replying to comments from children overseas. Children are more careful with their writing when they know they have an audience- the challenge now is for them to move from using the blog as a classroom diary to using it to really showcase their learning progress- some thing like Darren Kuroptawa’s scribe posts is where I want to head next- Maybe not so visually appealing but showing more of the learning.
What feedback has the school received from your parent community on this involvement?
A new parent to the school was checking out our school via the web site and had spent time checking out our class blogs- she said that by the time she actually arrived at the school gates she felt she was already part of what was going on!
Overseas family have encouraged us to blog. Keeping the family links alive across the globe.
What are some of the issues to consider?
Internet use agreements signed annually by parents/caregivers and children to allow publication of children work and images and to allow internet access- most parents are fine with it but need to included in the decision making process.
All blogs are monitored by the teacher so the only links or comments are seen and verified so the teacher and deemed to be safe.
Any other relevant comments would also be appreciated.
Children find the hit counter and Clustrmap exciting as they can see that people around the globe are interested in them and what they do.
Also this post may be useful…
http://allanahk.edublogs.org/2007/05/16/why-do-we-blog/
Cheers
Allanah
Allanah – you are magic. Thank you so much for feeding into so many of us. This information will be very helpful and already has been offered to others in our discussions. I totally support what you have so eloquently put. The children do become part of a global neighbourhood, very aware that the eyes of their audience are upon their writings.
The benefit to the lurkers, those who read and do not comment is hard to measure, but going from my own personal reflection is immense.
I have always advocated too that internet consent forms be signed annually. It is a good way to keep internet safety protocols to the fore, allow parents to have a conversation about it with their children (and others), and consider new information and choices
The wee clustr maps are a powerful visual aid to reflecting on our audience and cultures.
Thank you for taking the time and your reflection in replying to this comment. You are a treasure!