Internet Safety

The issue of online safety is an issue that needs to be addressed in Education, as the internet and digital devices provide connections with the world outside the classroom. While there are many positives in making connections, training our students to develop good habits and to discern unsafe situations is both a concern and a need each time they go online.

At our last Professional Development Day on Blogging, there was discussion around this issue. There were some great ideas and resources shared through the course of the day.To introduce the day we looked at a Primary Tech post on Teaching Children about Digital Footprints. Kathleen Morris discusses how many of websites and lesson plans focuses on the negative aspects of digital footprint. While this is a concern, Kathleen maintains that there needs to be balance in the way we approach our teaching of digital footprints. Students need to be shown appropriate ways to use the internet and to be aware that their behaviour can have consequences even when it is online.

In our discussion, some suggestions were made to help students be accountable for their behaviour and to ensure students are staying within the guidelines that they have been taught.

• having peer monitors for blogs, who check each others posts and comments.
• have a checklist of what a blog post or comment should contain. 
• discussing and promoting good quality comments through sharing and discussion.
• having a specific purpose for blog posts and comment which is using them for an academic purpose not a social one, 
• identifying good Netiquette in blog posts,

Listed below were some of the resources identified as being useful to teach Internet Safety. 

Do you have any ideas for teaching Internet Safety? Do you know of any great resources to share?

What is a good Comment?

Writing comments on blogs is an important part of blogging as it gives students feedback and questions about what they are learning. It helps continue engage students in the process of the learning process using writing as a way of expressing their thoughts. It helps consolidate what they have learnt.

As part of our Family blogging Month we will be awarding good comments two points. A comment that is error free and adds something to the conversation by either asking a question, an observation or thought will be awarded two points.

How to Comment on a blog:

1. Choose the post that you wish to comment on 
2. Go to the word "comment" and click on it. A text box will appear.
3. Type in your comment, remembering to check your spelling, punctuation etc. 
4. Choose in the drop down box, which identity you will post as.
5. Click on the word "Publish"
6. An anti-spam word and number will appear which needs to be entered into the box. 
7. Your comment will appear after approval.

Why do you think its important to write comments on a blog? Are there any tips that you could add to writing a good blog comment?

Family Blogging Night

It is something of a challenge to keep up with the many changes that happen with Technology, especially when many of us are so busy in our family lives. The opportunity to discuss and learn about online safety came with our Family Blogging Night. The purpose of the night was to educate parents about online safety and how to write a good comment on a blog.

Police Liaison Officers Mark Scambery and Allan Clapham shared with parents about the current trends that they are seeing with online behaviour and how we can help students to behave appropriately online. A good quote from the night was "Online behaviour has offline consequences", which is a good thought to teach to children about the way they need to approach using the Internet.

Some websites that Allan suggested were http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/ and http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/. 

Our fantastic Year 6 class had created a video on cyber safety. They showed some great examples of what good happen. 

The next part of the evening was  learning about what blogs are and how to write a good comment. Blogging has been a good opportunity to teach online safety in a way that is safe, non threatening and hands on. Students learn to use the Internet as a tool and a blog promotes students  work to an audience outside of their immediate community. 

Writing a good comment is the first step in understanding the appropriate language and phrasing needed to communicate clearly on a blog. It is a thoughtful response to the post that has been written. It teaches students to stay on the topic when they are writing. They also learn that they need to edit their work so that their meaning is clear. When publishing comments, we teach the students to only use their first name, for safety reasons.

During family Blogging Month we are hoping that many parents and other family members post comments too. We are hoping to see many fantastic comments posted on blogs as this will encourage our students to improve in their writing.

A big thank you to all the parents who attended the evening as well as a big thank you to our Police for giving their time. 

What did you learn about being safe online? What are some tips that you have for online safety? 

How to Comment on a Blog

Blogging has been described in previous posts as being like a conversation. A conversation is an interaction between people sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings between one another. The process of a blog is much the same.

To participate in this process effectively, students need to be trained in how to write a quality comment, that is both academic in nature and one that furthers the interaction of the blog post.

To make a quality comment on a post, some things to remember are:

• That the comment is like a letter- it needs to address the blog writer and end with who is writing the comment.
• Edit your work before posting. Check that you have spelled everything correctly and that your punctuation is accurate.
• No Spam please! Remember to make a comment that will contribute to the conversation by adding a question or new thought. Avoid using slang words or lots of icons. 
• Use only your first name so as to protect identities. If you are a family member, identify the child that you are related to is enough to identify you. For example: Hayley's Mum

What are some other ways that could contribute to a blog post? Do you have a good writing tip that could be shared?

Blogging Guidelines

As part of our planning day recently, our blogging team discussed the importance of having uniform guidelines for our school community. The guidelines aim to facilitate good online habits and behaviour. A key part of blogging is training students to know what is appropriate behaviour. By making the guidelines available to both parents and teachers means that this behaviour can be reinforced both at home and at school.

 As a starting point we looked at the following website http://4kmand4kj.global2.vic.edu.au/guidelinessafety/blog-guidelines/

 This blog has a good example of guidelines which they teach to their students and use to inform parents.

  It is an important step to discuss the guidelines with our students and parents, informing them of the online behaviour that will help create good online behaviour that is safe and responsible. The way students interact online will help establish a good digital footprint. A digital footprint is everything that students post online, so it is important that they are positive. Our students, although very familiar with the use of technology doesn't necessarily mean that they will know what is appropriate or inappropriate when online.

 Teaching Blogging guidelines: 

• Have students brainstorm ways of staying safe. They could discuss this in small groups or as a whole group. 
•  Discuss the question How do we stay safe on the internet? Record their answers using a camera or have them create a short video explaining their answer. 
•  Read through the guidelines on the blog together as a class and discuss each point. 
• Reinforce the guidelines every time students go online.

MACC Blogging Guidelines | Create infographics

Do you have any suggestions for blog Guidelines? How would you go about teaching them to a class?

Family Blogging Month

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad


A big part of blogging is having an audience to view the posts that are created. A blog is also a great way of connecting with the activities and work that is being completed in classrooms. An successful program to encourage commenting on blogs is Family Blogging Month.

The idea of this came from two class blogs, Mrs Morris' and Miss Jordan's Class  and Mrs Yollis' class who started Family Blogging Month as a way of encouraging family members of students to comment. It is also a good forum to help parents understand the importance of netiquette and good Digital Citizenship.

The purpose of Family Blogging Month is to promote class blogs and educate families about having a good online presence. A blog can be a powerful tool in demonstrating the great learning that is happening within the classroom. Encouraging families to post comments on blogs gives them the opportunity to view this great learning and to respond to it.

To kick start Family Blogging Month, a Blogging night will be held to discuss Digital Citizenship, how to post a quality comment and to promote class blogs within our school community. Some ideas can be found in the infographic below:

Family Blogging Month Ideas | Infographics

What are some ways that Family Blogging Month could be promoted? Do you have any ideas on how to teach good commenting or Digital Citizenship? 

Learning about Blogging through Paper Blogs

Paper blogs are a great way of practising blogging. Peter had a a great lesson with his class using paper blogs to practise both blogs and commenting on blogs using paper. This was the lesson plan that Peter used: 

1. Each student started a blog page (on a blank sheet of paper) - named their blog and started a discussion topic of their choosing

2. Students pretended they were alone at their computer, read blogs and posted their comment/s (pass it to the next student)

3. Give 3 minutes (adjust according to your students) to read the blog and comment/add to the discussion.

4. repeat 2&3  a couple of times (stick another sheet on the page if needed)

5. Each student checks for comments on their blog (i.e. they get their own page back) and and continue the discussion after reading the comments made by others.

                Timing was adjusted to allow for extra reading time

5. We did two more swap cycles @5min each. Some students in the later swaps got a blog page back that they already had made a comment on. This enabled them to see how others responded to their comments and develop from there.

6. Final comments made by the student on their own page to wrap the activity up. They uploaded (drew) a relevant picture to enhance their blog

Students were engaged - understanding of the process was developed! 

Have you any great ideas on teaching blogging to students? It would be great to share them!

The Next Instalment: Quadblogging

Within the framework of our project, we set out to explore how we can broaden the audience of our blog through Quadblogging. One of the purposes of blogging is to provide students with an audience beyond the realm of their classroom. It is a way of creating and promoting an interest in children's writing.



 

Quadblogging from Kate Todd


Quadblogging was started by David Mitchell, who is deputy headteacher at Heathfield Primary School in Bolton, UK. It was started as a way of addressing the need for a blog to have an audience. 

Quadblogging is a way of sharing what is happening in the classroom with three other schools. Each class' blog takes a turn at having the focus upon them. The other classes comment on the focus class' blog. It is authentic feedback from other students, who are from other parts of the world.

There are many ideas that can be obtained and shared through Quadblogging. How work is presented, how writing can be improved, how thoughts can be expressed, are all part of the quadblogging experience. The comments left by other students have been proven to improve children's writing, as they receive feedback.

Both Presentations are sourced from the quadblogging website: http://quadblogging.net/

Have you signed up for Quadblogging? Do you see any benefits with Quadblogging? What response do you think the students will have?

Project Survey

One of the aims in Project Blogstars is to see an improvement in students reading and writing through the medium of blogging. Evidence suggests through research, that blogging does enhance students literacy skills (Noytim, 2010, Weblogs enhancing students' English language learning). Students are given opportunities to communicate to an audience outside of their physical classroom environment. The audience that they interact with through a blog is an authentic, potentially global audience.

If we are to engage students in higher order thinking as part of their ongoing development as a learner, then blogs are an ideal way of helping in this process. A blog can be a way of documenting a student's learning experience, as part of reflecting on what they have learnt. The process of commenting can encourage further reflection upon the students learning. This enhances students critical thinking skills. Students also have the opportunity to become a part of a learner network through a blog, where they can communicate their thoughts and ideas.

As part of our project to show that there has been an improvement we started with a survey to establish an understanding of the way students use digital literacy in their writing. From the results that have been collated, the students in our project, are very familiar with digital literacy. There is a significant proportion that use it to communicate with those around them.

The results also indicate that students use digital communication as part of their social interaction. Most said they prefer a computer to write with and  have a preference skills to edit their work using one. Where blogging would help with this is that it would develop the need for students to become much clearer in their communication skills. It would promote the need for the development of good editing skills because of the audience that they are writing for.

Further Reading:

1. http://web.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/book_chapters/01.pdf
2. http://www.personal.psu.edu/mfh152/blogs/meghan_horbal/Drexler.pdf
3. https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2006/jonesd17626/jonesd17626.pdf
4. http://journal.acs-cam.org.uk/data/archive/2009/200901-article8.pdf

What  do you think is interesting about our survey? How do you think blogging can help improve students reading and writing skills?

Writing Comments on Blogs

Commenting on Blogs is one of the first important steps towards quality Blogging. Writing comments develop the idea that a blog has an audience. It is a way into understanding the importance of quality writing. It is where modelling of good writing takes place, discussing thoughts, ideas and putting them down in a way that another person understands so that a conversation can take place. It is an excellent way of reflecting upon what has been learnt.

It is important that we demonstrate how to comment on blogs to our students. Modelling needs to take place so that students can identify quality comments and start to use those as their template for writing. I encourage you to start writing comments on blogs as a way of modelling good comment writing.

Paper Blogs

To develop and promote the idea of blogging and quality commenting does not even require any sort of digital technology. It can be a simple piece of paper!
Some great lesson plans can be found at the following blogs to get some ideas:

• Paper Blogs: Ms. Graham and Mrs Holden
• Notes From McTeach: Learning to Blog Using Paper

Use these ideas to take into your classroom. Have students create their own paper blog post after looking at some examples. Post these around the classroom. Then give students some sticky notes to wander around looking at the paper blogs. Have them choose a few to comment on. Discuss the different comments that have posted onto the blogs. What works? What doesn't work.

Discuss what Spam is and what it looks like. Spam are those comments that are more social in nature that does not contribute to the ongoing conversation of the blog, but tends to have a nuisance value.

What is Quality Commenting?

• Mrs Yollis' Class: Quality Commenting
• 4KM and 4 KJ @ Leopold Primary School

Discussing with your students about what a quality comment is on an ongoing basis is important so that they develop an understanding of the importance of quality commenting. Establish some guidelines with your students is suggested so that students have something to refer to.

Tips for Commenting:

• Stay on topic, consider what is being said and respond in a way that is considered.
• Check Grammar, Spelling and that it makes sense. Its fundamental, I know, but I know when I've read things of my own back, there are some things that need fixing. It's always good to check.
• Discuss what Netiquette is: Using positive comments, responding in a way that is thoughtful and considerate and replying to comments are all part of Netiquette that need to be taught to students. 

It would be great to see photos and work samples as you teach these things in your classroom. If you could send them through that would be great!

The Benefits of Blogging

The wonderful benefit of Twitter is that we have access to some fantastic Professional Development. In terms of blogging, Kathleen Morris (@Kathleen_Morris) is a wonderful lady to follow as she has been leading the way in this area for quite some time. On the weekend she posted this great post on blogging, which I highly recommend be read as she has some great videos and thoughts regarding blogging:

 http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2013/03/08/the-benefits-of-educational-blogging/

There are benefits to blogging that you may or may not have considered

• Social skills and confidence
• Internet Safety
• Literacy
• Maths
• Research
• Home/ School Connections
• ICT Skills
• Classroom Community
• Authentic Audience
• Global Connections

Was there something that you had not considered with blogging to be a benefit? How do you think blogging can help the way you teach?

What is a blog?

What is a blog from kateanne777

What do you think a blog is? How effective do you think blogging will be in your classroom? 

Our Blogging Adventure begins!

The purpose of this blog is to create a focal point for our Blogging Project: Project BLOGSTARS. The aim of the project is to encourage quality writing through blogging within our students at Mount Annan Christian College. It is a funded project by AGTQP 2013, which is a government initiative to improve teaching quality, through the use of technology.

Writing is an essential skill that all students need to do well. Our outcomes for the project is to see the quality of student engagement in writing to improve through Blogging. Blogging provides a platform which allows students writing to be accessed by an authentic audience of parents, peers and the wider community.It is an opportunity to showcase what they learnt learning and how they learnt it. It will allow the students to improve their skills in technology as well. 

The project will give teacher's skills in using blogging and other ICT skills as a way of developing their student's literacy skills and engaging them in the learning process. It is also about creating a learning journal that can be referred to by other teachers, and allowing interaction and input from them, as a way of sharing ideas. Blogging can also become a very valuable tool in creating that link between school and home. 

Parents will be encouraged to join us in this journey too. We will be holding an information night and Blogging Awareness month to highlight blogging within the school and to raise its profile among families. It is to be hoped that they start to respond and interact in the ongoing conversations on class blogs.

Digital Citizenship will also be addressed through this project. Educating families about Online safety and responsible online safety is an ongoing and important issue to address, as there are many issues that our students and their families face while using the internet.

What do you know about blogging? How do you feel about using technology and its use in the classroom? What do you think student's will be able to achieve through blogging?