Weblogs

Hmm it's been awhile since I added anything to my own weblog - seem to spend heaps of time working with others on theirs. In fact I've help set up over fifty this year. Basically we seem to have met our goals with setting these up. There have been a few technical problems and staff changes across the schools haven't helped much. Now I feel it's up to the schools and the kids themselves to continue. I have had lots of requests for site counters, how to add video etc. I was initially going to do this. However after thinking it through I've decided to put in a short lesson at each school on how to follow links and use help pages. Two of my seniors have been taught to do this and with a little help on using the templates for their sites they have mmanaged to do a great deal themselves. The point of all this is the kids gain ownership of their weblogs. When you put in the effort to personalise your blog,(or help each other to do it), then it becomes yours. Hopefully this applies to the concept as well.
I'm very pleased with the kids weblogs from my school. It's now an option for them when it comes to publishing written work. They are reasonably selective about what they publish and the driving force seems to be the perceived audience. For the juniors it's a specific group; nanna sisters, family friends, the people who put comments on the blogs. The seniors are more aware of the far wider potential audience. One good reason for a sitecounter is it can show them the world wide audience. It's a shock to see that someone fron Nepal or Japan has logged on to your blog.