As I was reading Kist for this week, my thoughts went toward the security of blogging and the importance of the students understanding that blogs are the same as a social networking site like Facebook when it comes to the possibility of people seeing the information that the student posts on that blog. When I teach, I am planning on taking advantage of the possibilities that blogs present. With that comes the need to educate the students. I will start out by showing the students a copy of Bud Hunt's Blogging Guidelines and then craft an activity where they have to search blogs to see how old some are as an example of the fact that what you put in your blogs and on the internet staying there forever. They will need to explore the blog site in a directed activity so that they have the chance to get a feel for the site and can ask any questions before they have their first blog entry. The blogs will most likely be closed to only the people within their class and have to do with their responses to class readings and activities as well as things in life that the students find that link to the class material. I know that this is very similar to what we are doing in class, but that is because I think that the blogs are working well and are more interesting and open for student creativity than just written responses every other day.
What do you all think about the safety of using blogs within the classroom? What are your main concerns about blogs and your future students?
I feel safety on the Internet in general boils down to one thing: common sense. As long as students don't go around posting private information, problems shouldn't arise.
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