The Swivel Chair

Blogging and social networking in school

Staff are engaged and genuinely interested in taking the leap into creating their own space on line…..I am steering a little more away from calling it a blog with new comers as some consider a blog a place where they divulge their deepest darkest secrets in a dear diary format. For me and the direction school is taking, it seems to be a very useful communication tool not only for staff but students and parents. To get to a point where all Elementary staff are replacing their weekly newsletter printed and sent home only to be be found 4 days later…( I am talking about me here) would be exciting. To be able to post student work, photos, voice threads, daily, every other day, weekly updates…whatever and have an on going record that parents can view in real time is incredible. Already 5th grade are doing it. 4th are nearly ……. But it has to be measured steps. To sit and have staff create their blog, sign up for twitter, delicious, Flickr, Picasa, Widgetbox, Netvibes, youtube, gmail, pimp their firefox (as Jeff Utecht calls it), with add-ons such as twirl, adblock Plus, All in one sidebar, Foxytunes, Pic lens, screen grab, stumble upon, hotspot shield, friendfeed, can totally overwhelm….but to have one without the other just doesn’t cut it! How many do you introduce at once? What ones am I missing? So much I want to do tomorrow!!!!!

Tags: education, networking, school tools, web 2.0
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

2 Responses to “Blogging and social networking in school”

1. Jeff Utecht Says:
   August 26th, 2008 at 11:24 am

   Start with what counts! What makes a different to learning. Widgetbox is cool…but you don’t need it. Delicious is great…but not for everyone. You can’t change every teacher. You need to meet teachers were they are excited. Introduce them to the tools and let them tell you what they want. Some might not get to flickr until Oct. and that’s OK. Others will try and out run you and those are the exciting ones.

   You introduce one at a time and you go slow to go fast. Overwhelming teachers with new tools will do more damage then good. It will take one wrong term, one web site not loading and you will loose them. Take your time, focus on learning and let that lead you to the tools!

2. Peggy Says:
   September 5th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

   Hey Mr. P, Tiffany’s been telling me all about you.
   And no, I know my blog was fantastical, but I don’t even have mine yet because for some reason they’re supposed to be, like, made first and then handed out to the students. Which I think is kind of strange, because it’s not like 8th graders are incapable of making it themselves…
   Drop.io is one of the best sites I’ve found yet as a student. Replace the old “send your assignment to yourself to print at school” method and switch to Drop.io, where you easily and simply drop off your documents or photos to pick up somewhere else.
   It can be made public, or password encoded, and you can send documents and files from your cell phone and email as well.
   (: 8th grade is fine, by the way. Lotsa homework. Dianna’s not in ANY of my classes. ):

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