Thoughts on the Russell Street School Blog - NZ

I enjoyed getting a glimpse into education and students in another country. It was interesting to see what we have in common and things that differ a bit. I found the choice of using a blog for the school website interesting. Most of the schools in my area that are public are connected on the district's website for their school. Private schools in the area have their own websites, but not blogging platform websites. I wonder about the different policies for school communications across countries, states, and communities. One thing that would come into play in setting up the school communications in the way they have is cost. They have a great platform to distribute information and interact for far less money than keeping up a private website.

 One of the things that looking through the sites connected blogs made me think about is who ultimately is in charge of the school blog and things connected to it. From using a small class blog for reflection in my presentational communications class, I know that reading entries and making sure everything posted is appropriate is a time consuming process. If the class blogs were private for students and parents, I wouldn't think it would matter as much but if content is available to the public, I know my school would be all over it to make sure it fit with our mission, values, even rules about logo use etc. I wonder what it is like to balance the class blog with the other daily activities of teaching. I did notice there is a cybersafety agreeement that the parents and students sign that says a student won't post listed personal information without permission from a teacher, but in today's world I wonder if that is enough? Cyber predators could use the first names of students, their work posted, and their pictures to make contact or start a conversation with a student without much effort. Now, in reality, is that any more likely than with students' personal social media use or family posting pics on facebook etc.? Probably not, but I wonder about the school's legal responsibilities in the US regarding stuff like this. Perhaps, it's just that I work in a school district where we have tightly controlled social media and postings.

Do I think it's awesome? Do I like what they are doing? Absolutely. The blog site for the school is engaging and the class blogs are being used in a way that lets students use critical 21st century skills. I just wonder if the blogs being available to the public as opposed to available to the community (including parents) is that much more beneficial. While publishing work is something all students should be learning to do and a necessary step in PBL etc., how do we archive or deal with the years of student work that will be available to the public over their academic careers. Will these posts they wrote in 3rd grade be a part of their digital footprint? I wonder what things we haven't thought of yet, will come into play in the future with this new frontier of learning.