How to coax administrators and parents who challenge blogs?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Candace Hackett Shively on September 3, 2007 at 2:38pm

Inundate them with the positive aspects while expressing great understanding of their "concern" for safety and letting them know that you share the concern. Show them how blogging can be done within the AUP of the school. Show them all the ways you can keep the blog "safe," and ask to conduct a pilot for a half-year or marking period to "see" if the school should open up blogging to all teachers. Volunteer to collect the data and be the guinea pig. There are some ideas (including a blogging agreement to have students and parents sign) at TeachersFirst's Blogging Basics for the Classroom. You can skip to the part you need or share the entire tutorial, if you wish. (Note: the editors are working on updating the info on specific blogging tools. It is a year old. Use the help here on Classroom 2.0 to find the best tools right now).
Most of the resistance is fear of the unknown. So make it KNOWN to them without making them look stupid.

In my experience with both parents and administrators, letting them think you are listening to them and offering solutions to ease THEIR concerns (not your wants) usually is the key. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 4, 2007 at 5:03am

Candace -- I reckon that communicating openly and effectively is the key to getting my way (lol) with them. Thank you for the very excellent advice and the link!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 3, 2007 at 4:03pm

I make everything crystal clear in writing before I start any online project (blog, wiki, webpage, photosharing, posting student work, penpals, emails, etc) , get parent signatures and ask parents to join in. I have about 40 of my 60 students blogging with no complaints, so far. Also have several parents joining in. You can see our blog here. N.

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 4, 2007 at 5:00am

Nancy -- I've seen your fantastic blog before. How I would love to be able to do one so well.

So, what do you do with the 20 who don't join the blog?

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Permalink Reply by Alice Mercer on September 3, 2007 at 5:13pm

Ms. Whatsit although my district has a blanket "ban" on blogs through filtering software, they will allow sites to be unblocked, with an administrator's sign off. I'm going to attached the form. You might want to show this to the person in charge of both blocking (usually tech services/ISET) and someone from curriculum. Also, make sure the curriculum person sees some sample blogs. Do screenshots, etc. if you can't actually get on at school. Kevin H. and Gail D. can provide solid middle school examples of blogging. Get the curriculum person to be your ally, Use the form to let the tech person see they can loosen their hold on blocking, etc. and there will still be controls. Make sure that you have solid moderation practices planned for, so that you know everything that is going up (and approving it first is even better).

The next step is to have a solid permission form for parents to sign off, AND a AUP for parents/students to agree to. I'll include a copy of that as well.

Attachments:

• blog form sample.doc, 22 KB
• Acceptable Use Policy.doc, 26 KB

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 4, 2007 at 4:59am

Alice, this is great information, but when I download the documents, they aren't readable for me. Would you be so kind as to email them to me? Perhaps that will work. I'm on a Mac if that makes a difference. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Alice Mercer on September 4, 2007 at 6:16am

Okay, I made the mistake of sending you doc, not txt or rtf. Chalk it up to going back to school today.

Attachments:

• AUP.txt, 2 KB
• blog form sample.txt, 2 KB

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 4, 2007 at 5:52pm

Thank you Alice!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin amboe on September 3, 2007 at 10:18pm

There are two ways to start down the classblog path. One is to use a non-blogging tool to show the value of students writing with wider audiences. If you have an email system with conferencing built in (like Firstclass) then you can mimic blogs in a safe and secure system.

Secondly, you can try a secure blogging site such as 21classes.com that is only accessible to yourself, your students and those that you give permission to see the postings.

Once you start down the blogging road - even if it is small steps, you will have the evidence to convince parents and administrators that writing is improving in quality, thinking and volume.

Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 4, 2007 at 4:56am

I just recently learned about 21classes. I'll look into it more. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Adrian Greig on September 4, 2007 at 3:58am

Hi Ms Whatsit,

This page here http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/communication/blogs/about... has some information on blogging (positives etc) and its usage in our system's eLearning environment. It also has a link at the bottom on acceptable use which may be of use for your own policy development.

Cheers!

Adrian

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 4, 2007 at 4:55am

Thanks Adrian! I have it bookmarked.

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