MANAGING ICT


Teacher Isobel Durrant describes the benefits of using blogs in the classroom and offers some ideas and advice


the use of this technology will not make abuses disappear. By embracing instead of fighting new technologies


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and using them in the classroom, e-safety becomes something real that pupils and teachers address together. A classroom blog provides an online space where


pupils can post their work. Many such blogs are run by teachers who set homework tasks in a post for pupils to leave their answers in a comments box. If teachers do not want pupils to see each other’s


answers until all the work is in, they simply make sure each answer has to be approved before it appears. This has obvious advantages when encouraging and enforcing deadlines. There is bound to be the digital equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”, but regular defaulters will be easy to spot. However, with this model, the teacher-pupil dynamic


remains essentially the same. Blogging presents a real chance to use technology to empower pupils, by putting pupils in the driving seat and giving them authorship and editorial rights. Curiously, very few secondary schools seem to have grasped this opportunity. Yet it is axiomatic that pupils who feel they have a stake in their learning and that their input is recognised, work harder and perform better. As education consultant and IT guru Alan November


has commented: “Much of the technology we add to schools remains under the control of the teacher. Kids need to feel they are adding value.” At the Evelina Hospital School in London, where


pupils in the secondary classroom write most of the posts on the classroom blog, staff have seen pupils becoming more self-critical, willing to draft and redraft work, and use dictionaries to check spellings, as they know it might be seen by a worldwide audience. News stories feature prominently, with pupils suggesting ideas and choosing what to write about in a class editorial meeting. The stories about celebrities and violent crime reflect teenage pre-occupations. Pupils learn their writing has to gain readers’


attention quickly. By encouraging them to explore other blogs, staff help children understand how great the competition is, and how they probably have less than 10 words to impress before the mouse is clicked to another page. Although short pieces predominate, children also have the opportunity to write longer features, as


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CHOOLS ARE often wary when it comes to using social network sites in the classroom. Stories about cyber-bullying, hacking and fake profiles on sites such as Facebook feature frequently in our newspapers and understandably fuel such nervousness, but simply banning


Classroom blogging


They are encouraged to say not only what they have enjoyed, but also how they think a piece of work can be improved. Much of the commenting is oral and happens in


lessons, but some pupils do comment online, and there is a regular but silent readership. By keeping a piece of work on the blog, pupils can view it at home, and use it as a model for their own writing. Explaining why posting work on the classroom blog


helped to improve her work, one 14-year-old said when the teacher posted a comment, she would read it, look at her work again and edit it. Asked how this differed from the comment being written in her book, her answer was succinct: “I read the comments on the blog, I don’t bother with the ones in my book.” Having work published engenders pride. Other


pupils can see where teachers have given praise and made suggestions for improvement. They can add comments and model work on the positive examples provided by their peers. It provokes discussion and openness, effectively creates lesson content and gives pupils a powerful say in the learning process. At the Schools Network national conference late last year, Alan November asked delegates: “Are


Are your students leaving a legacy that will benefit other students? Are your students


producing work for an audience of one (the teacher) or the world?


well as take part in creative writing and photography challenges, and to suggest YouTube videos to post that have amused or impressed them. Initially, the impetus to start the blog came from the


desire to establish an online community. The make- up of the classroom changes daily, with some pupils only attending once; others are long-term patients, or children with chronic conditions who have repeated hospital admissions. When well enough, they can attend the classroom.


So the idea of having a safe space which could be read by anyone with access to the internet, and which would allow pupils to keep in touch with each other and the school between admissions was very attractive. After two years, it has evolved into a central pillar of the secondary classroom. The hospital school blog, which is hosted by


Wordpress, a free site, quickly exceded expectations and brought unanticipated benefits. It allows good work to be shared and for pupils to learn from each other. Mark work in exercise books, and that work and your input and advice generally remain private between you and each individual. Have that same work on a blog post, where everyone can see it, and all pupils can gain insights into how improve their work. The blog is a tool for developing peer-assessment


and a forum where pupils see examples of work produced by their peers. When commenting on a post, pupils need to learn how to make constructive criticism.


SecEd • March 1 2012


your students leaving a legacy that will benefit other students? Are your students producing work for an audience of one (the teacher) or the world?” A blog potentially opens up pupils’ work to the


scrutiny of the world. When NC, a year 7 child with learning difficulties, received positive comments from people around the globe on photographs he had posted, he was motivated to write thank-you replies to them. HBL, then aged 13, wrote a moving and well-


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structured piece about her little sister’s diagnosis with cancer. The head of spiritual care at the hospital was so impressed, she asked permission to use it when training staff. No red-inked comment in an exercise book can give a child such a strong message that her writing has the power to influence and inform. Evelina Hospital School pupils have a sense of


ownership of their classroom blog. Last summer, pupils reflected on the experience so far, and how they wanted it to develop. Top of the list was podcasting. In the spring, the classroom produced its first “radio” programme. Working alongside professionals from the BBC,


staff and pupils planned content and wrote material. Recording, editing, giving each other feedback was an intensive experience and a learning curve for all involved. There was a real sense that everyone had worked as


a team. Short and long-term pupils donned headphones and learned to use Audacity, an open-source sound-


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editing programme. They recorded sound effects and jingles, tweaked scripts, and made suggestions that shaped the final programme. When the post went live and positive comments came in, there was a palpable sense of pride, and the desire to do it again. The blog had become a collaborative venture. Pupils also wanted the blog to reach a wider


audience. So they studied magazines, examining design and layout, discussed the purpose and audience of the


blog to create a page with more teen-appeal. Unlike most classroom exercises around purpose and audience, the decisions taken had a real end goal.


SecEd • Isobel Durrant is a teacher and journalist.


Further information You can take a look at the Evelina Hospital School blog at www.evelina.southwark.sch.uk/news/


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