Will Richardson

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When Parents Contribute to Student Blogs…

May 29, 2006 By Will Richardson

Anne pointed to this pretty amazing exchange that occurred on one of her student blogs recently, and it’s an interesting and effective example of how involved parents can contribute to their childrens’ learning in these more transparent spaces. I wonder how many teachers actively invite parents to at minimum read and perhaps respond to the work that their children are doing in their blogs. I know when I was in the classroom, I made a point of letting parents know what the URLs of the blogs were, but I left the decision to have parents comment on the sites up to the students themselves. Since it was high school, most opted not to let that happen. But a few did, and while the responses were not many, almost all of them were helpful, instructive, and relevant. And I do think for the students who allowed their parents to contribute it was a positive experience, especially for the parents who like the opportunity to be more involved.

Anyway, it’s nice to see such great discussion happening on student blogs. It’s rich, personal and, in this case at least, adds a great deal to the topic.

Filed Under: Connectivism, Literacy, Professional Development, Read/Write Web, Social Stuff

Comments

  1. Miles Berry says

    May 29, 2006 at 1:01 pm

    I think this is a great idea, but for those of us with pupils blogging inside walled gardens, I’m not sure how one goes about this practically – and whilst it’s fine for Zachary’s folks to comment on his posts, some might have concerns about them reading and commenting on Amy’s blog. I suppose public, anonymous blogs are a way round this, but these waters get very murky.

    The post reminds me of Jeff Flyn’s insightful notion of blogging in early-years education, where instead of the child posting, the blog becomes a place to collate together the input from all those concerned with a child’s education:

    With blogs, might we guide students to reflection through writing dialogue. Elgg provides for friends and community, but for younger learners might we guide parents, siblings, grandparents and others to participate in these dialogues and reflections. Does lifelong learning really only start in the high schools? Might parent/family supports as well as teacher guidance be combined to provide a systemic scaffolding for our youngest learners? What if when Jose or Liz start school, their parents and teachers during their first conference set up a learning landscape that might have mementos/artifacts of support or affection (audio affirmations, notes of exhortation, pictures of good times, etc.) as well as objectives and guiding questions?

  2. Chris Harbeck says

    May 30, 2006 at 8:45 pm

    On my latest Growing Post assignments I had the students get their parents watch and add comments to the work they were doing. I only received positive feedback. Anything to get parents and students involved together is a good thing.

    Growing Post Hall of Fame
    sp8mathzone.pbwiki.com

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