This guide is an update of my post from February 2011. With the school year in Victoria, Australia about to begin, this is a timely reminder of how you can get your class blogging.

Before you start, you need to find the motivation to begin and persevere with blogging. If you need reminding of some of the benefits of blogging, or need to convince a fellow staff member of the benefits, check out this post and this video.

1. Choose Your Platform

If you are working in a Victorian Government or Catholic School, I recommend you head straight to Global2. Global2 is an Edublogs Campus Site. That means you get all the best features that Edublogs offers for free! Support for Edublogs Campus subscribers is extensive.

If you are not in a Victorian Government or Catholic School, you will need to choose another platform. There are many blogging platforms out there but my personal favourite is Edublogs. Blogger is another alternative with some good features. I have also seen Posterous and Weebly work quite well for some classes in 2011.

I have found pros and cons for both Blogger and Edublogs which I will briefly summarise.

Edublogs has a free version but to access better features and to create student blogs, you will need to pay for a subscription. Click here to find out about costs. Edublogs is purely for education with no adult content, and allows you to create student blogs from a class blog. The personalised support offered by Edublogs is excellent.

Blogger is Google’s blogging platform (also known as Blogspot) and is totally free. Blogger has a good range of theme templates and sidebar gadgets available, however I  have found the overall features to be more simplistic than Edublogs (not necessarily a bad thing for some teachers and students). Specific support is also much more limited than Edublogs, but because of its large worldwide usage, there are a lot of Blogger forums, help sites and videos on the web.

One important point to note with Blogger is that there is a navigation bar at the top of each blog that allows you to “go to the next blog” among other things. This could potentially cause safety issues for your students if the “next blog” is inappropriate.

A quick Google search for “remove Blogger navbar” will give you many links to instructions for removing the navigation bar.

Still not sure what platform to use? Check out these blogs to see the difference

BLOGGER BLOGS

Mrs Yollis’ Classroom Blog

Open the Door to B4

Ugandan Global Project

EDUBLOGS BLOGS

2KM and 2KJ @ Leopold Primary School

Mr Salsich’s Class Blog

Mr Avery’s Classroom Blog

2. Find Support

Whatever platform you choose, there are avenues for support. Make the most of these to help you learn about blogging.

General:

  • Twitter (I am @kathleen_morris and there are many other fabulous helpful bloggers on Twitter).
  • Read other class blogs for ideas (check out the list on the Edublogger site). *Note* do not directly copy other people’s work. That is a breach of copyright, etiquette and a form of plagiarism.
  • Are there any other teachers interested in blogging at your school or in your PLN? Buddy up with them and learn together.
  • Sign up for the Blogging Teacher Challenge or Student Blogging Challenge. Both are free professional development to help you and your students to become better bloggers.

Edublogs:

  • Read the Edublogger Blog by Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt – a mine of information!
  • Visit the Edublogs support page for a extensive range of videos and written tutorials.
  • Follow Edublogs on Twitter (@Edublogs).

Blogger:

  • Visit the Blogger support page for getting started guides and tutorials.
  • Follow Blogger on Twitter (@blogger).
  • Use Google to search for answers to your questions.

3. Set Your Guidelines

Before you start blogging with your students you need to think about what sort of guidelines you want to have in place. There is no right or wrong answer here. Decide what will work best for you, your students, your parents and your school.

Questions to consider:

•    Will you include photos of the students’ faces?
•    Will you select the option (in Edublogs) to include you blog in public searches like Google?
•    Will you ask parents to not use their surname when they comment so they don’t identify their child?
•    Will you select the option to have all comments sent to your email for approval before appearing on the blog?
•    Will you set up protocols with your class so they know not to reveal too much about themselves on the blog and use courteous language online?
•    Will you read all students’ blog posts before they are published?

Example guidelines:

Click here to find the guidelines for my new 2012 class blog, 4KM and 4KJ @ Leopold Primary School.

Click here to find Mr Salsich’s guidelines for his third grade class blog.

*Reminder* it is okay to look at other class blog guidelines for ideas, but it is not okay to copy them without permission and acknowledgment.

4. Introduce Your Blog to Parents

Parent permission is crucial. I create my own notes. Don’t be afraid to do the same if you’re the first blogger at your school.

Below are my 2012 parent permission notes in PDF format.

4KM and 4KJ Blog Permission Note 2012 K Morris

4KM and 4KJ Blog Information Note 2012 K Morris (This note has evolved over the years to include FAQs that parents often asked in previous years. In 2012, I really wanted my notes to inform parents that blogging is a well thought out and beneficial activity as I found many parents were unaware of this.)

I also create a  handout to help parents navigate the class blog.

10 Steps to Navigating the 2KM and 2KJ Blog 2011

10 Steps to Navigating the 4KM and 4KJ Blog 2012

I include a “Learn About Blogging” set of pages on our class blog.

I am working on updating my learn about blogging page for 2012.

On the parent information night early in the school year, I talk to the parents about blogging, commenting and answer any of their questions.

Ongoing support for parents is provided via email newsletters throughout the year.

Click here to find a post about the Family Blogging Afternoon that we held early in 2011 to introduce families to blogging.

5. Introduce Your Blog to Students

I start the school year by introducing the students to the concept of blogging and familiarising them with the terminology. If you’ve never blogged before, start by reading and commenting on other class blogs.

Introducing my students to their blogging community is done from Day One. We have established many “blogging buddies” over the four years I have had a class blog and each year my students and I continue these relationships.

It is so important to teach students to write quality comments if you want to improve their literacy skills and help them to engage in meaningful conversations on the blog. In 2010 I wrote a post about how I teach commenting skills. Find it here.

Kelly Jordan and I created a poster we use to teach students about quality commenting. You might like to create some sort of poster, rubric or guideline for your class to follow when commenting.

In my class, students have the opportunity to earn their own blog throughout the year and I make them aware of this early in the school year. Find out more about how I set up student blogs here.

Throughout the year, this is the rough process I use to introduce students to blogging.

When your blog is up and running, maintenance, consistency and reciprocation is key. You and your students will need to become part of the blogging community to reap the full rewards that blogging can offer. Silvia Tolisana has provided some excellent advice about these topics on her blog here.

What advice would you give to new bloggers?