In a discussion with one of our NESD Superintendents and Technology Coordinator, I found out some of the division policy relating to how we should handle student privacy within our professional blogs.
First of all, the division supports and encourages teachers to use blogs. However, when teachers create professional blogs we must remember that, depending how they are shared, they are open to students, parents, administrators, and anyone else who may come across it. We must therefore be literate in understanding the digital footprint we are leaving for ourselves and everyone identified in our blog.
The NESD privacy policy states that we are not to use student names in anything that is accessible over the Internet. This means that when you are blogging about experiences in your classrooms be sure not to use names of students (first or last). One way of dealing with this is to be creative and possibly have your students make up a sudo name (alias or fake name) that can be used if needed. Photos and videos can be placed or linked to your blog as long as names of students are not used. Write your blog in a professional manner, cognizant of divisional policy, and you should be fine. Happy blogging!
Take care,
Kirk
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Why Blog?
Recently, I met with a teacher to discuss a project involving a web 3.0 application. I asked the teacher if they would blog about their experience? The immediate reaction to my question was that the teacher was not a fan of social networking tools like Facebook and feels somewhat the same about blogging. We continued our discussion focusing on blogging and a comment that eventually came out identified that the teacher was self-conscious and thought colleagues would see blogging as arrogant and boastful. This somewhat set me back, as I never really thought that others would look at blogging in this manner.
So, what is the purpose of blogging? For me blogging allows me to organize my thoughts into a single location accessible from anywhere on the Internet. These posts can include many forms of media including text, images, videos and sounds. Going back and reading posts allows me to reflect and potentially gain a greater understanding of the topic.
Now, the previous reasons for blogging were mainly for me. What can it do for others? Blogging can provide insight into your experiences, allowing others to learn from your experiences. When you share your experiences with others it helps to build capacity allowing others to build on your experience and knowledge. It is because of this reason I would never consider blogging to be arrogant or boastful. In fact I see it as informative, helpful and supportive. So, I ended my discussion with the teacher by saying, if they won't blog for themselves please blog for the rest of us so we can learn from their experiences.
Why do you blog?
Resources:
So, what is the purpose of blogging? For me blogging allows me to organize my thoughts into a single location accessible from anywhere on the Internet. These posts can include many forms of media including text, images, videos and sounds. Going back and reading posts allows me to reflect and potentially gain a greater understanding of the topic.
Now, the previous reasons for blogging were mainly for me. What can it do for others? Blogging can provide insight into your experiences, allowing others to learn from your experiences. When you share your experiences with others it helps to build capacity allowing others to build on your experience and knowledge. It is because of this reason I would never consider blogging to be arrogant or boastful. In fact I see it as informative, helpful and supportive. So, I ended my discussion with the teacher by saying, if they won't blog for themselves please blog for the rest of us so we can learn from their experiences.
Why do you blog?
Resources:
- Resources for Blogging in the Classroom ( Jamie Tubbs)
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