Thing 3 Reflection

There are several ways that I believe blogging will be helpful to students: general information sharing, promoting or spotlights are specific students or events, upcoming events, etc. Although these are basic information giving ideas, they are important. As for allowing students to share: there are several times during the school year when students are given an assignment to critique a performance (either their own or someone elses). By allowing the posts to be put on the blogsite will not only allow students to quickly leave their critique but will allow other students to see and comment on the views of the other students.

By allowing students to see the works/words of other students leads into the next reflection question about concerns I have about the process. Students can sometimes be mean, intentionally or unintentionally, and could hurt and inhibit the responses from other students. I have adjusted the settings on this blog to moderate all comments before they are published. This will hopefully eliminate any problems of flaming on the blog. But I do have a concern about student privacy. How do we teachers identify the students submitting legitimate postings without having them divulge first and last names? I am thinking that perhaps using a student's first name and maybe the last four digits of their student ID number might help protect their privacy. I'd be happy to hear any comments on this one!

Other uses would include communication between parents and myself, being able to share information and calendar dates with them, as well as with members of the community. Sharing performance clips is also possible, once I learn how to get my videos from the camera to the computer (hopefully another 23 Things lessons!).