My Impressions
I had mixed thoughts as I looked at the websites. They were very pretty, very professional in appearance, which is what you would expect to see from your school. It looks as if they have begun using other communication channels, though, and are no longer using these sites. The main page notes that they are moving to School Stream as of February, 2018. The blog pages do not appear to be updated, either. I could be wrong, but I got the feeling that the blogs were something that was required of the classes for a period of time, probably by administration, but either they were no longer required (the focus shifted, again) or they were using another channel to communicate this information. Perhaps they were given a training and everyone was motivated for a time!
My school district uses Facebook to communicate with the community, and I have mixed feelings about that, too. I like seeing what the kids are doing at school. And my son, who just turned ten, is likely to mix things up when he relates his day, or forget entirely to tell me of important happenings. I've learned of field days and special events this way, and I enjoy seeing the pictures. On the other hand, it is definitely a privacy concern. I know that everyone gets the opportunity to opt in or out of sharing their child's images on social media, but when I see a bunch of posts with dozens of student pictures, I wonder if someone actually took the time to check that all of the kids had parental permission to share the images.
Another thing that comes to mind is the amount of time that this would take for each classroom. It could be a valuable use of time, but it's just one more thing. At my school, we have a media class that spends a significant chunk of time filming the school's daily announcements, sharing them with the staff, and posting them to Facebook for the community. A teacher has an off period (an hour a day) to make updates to the school's website, including pictures and events. In my classroom, I spend a chunk of each day updating Google Classroom, uploading assignments, and making sure that all of the students are able to access and understand the work. I occasionally use Remind to communicate, and I could use it more to share pictures and updates. But if I were to blog about classroom activities, and include pictures from each class, I would spend two or three times that amount of time. It's vital to communicate with parents and the community, but there just isn't enough time!
(note: I posted this already as a comment, but I believe that I should have published it as a post, instead....)
My school district uses Facebook to communicate with the community, and I have mixed feelings about that, too. I like seeing what the kids are doing at school. And my son, who just turned ten, is likely to mix things up when he relates his day, or forget entirely to tell me of important happenings. I've learned of field days and special events this way, and I enjoy seeing the pictures. On the other hand, it is definitely a privacy concern. I know that everyone gets the opportunity to opt in or out of sharing their child's images on social media, but when I see a bunch of posts with dozens of student pictures, I wonder if someone actually took the time to check that all of the kids had parental permission to share the images.
Another thing that comes to mind is the amount of time that this would take for each classroom. It could be a valuable use of time, but it's just one more thing. At my school, we have a media class that spends a significant chunk of time filming the school's daily announcements, sharing them with the staff, and posting them to Facebook for the community. A teacher has an off period (an hour a day) to make updates to the school's website, including pictures and events. In my classroom, I spend a chunk of each day updating Google Classroom, uploading assignments, and making sure that all of the students are able to access and understand the work. I occasionally use Remind to communicate, and I could use it more to share pictures and updates. But if I were to blog about classroom activities, and include pictures from each class, I would spend two or three times that amount of time. It's vital to communicate with parents and the community, but there just isn't enough time!
(note: I posted this already as a comment, but I believe that I should have published it as a post, instead....)
I wonder if a blog would be capable of handling some of the items you are attending to in your daily work. I also use Google Classroom and it's kind of the hub for activity in my classroom, but I think it might be possible to transfer some of the communication and assignment posts in a blog format. It may be something I try out a little this year...
ReplyDeleteBen, I think that it is a definitely a possibility to use one or more blogs to handle some of the communication and assignment posts. I'll have to give that some thought!
DeleteI agree with several things you shared. I also was curious about the media release issue and wether or not they are truly monitoring which children are shown. I think that these blogs are used more for updating the blogs readers on what the students are doing. I felt that some of the younger grades were showing work more then upper grades because of the inclusion of Seesaw. I use blogs in the classroom as a replacement for notebooks in social studies and science.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, that's an interesting idea! I know that our science department uses student notebooks.
DeleteI had wondered about the tapering off of the blogging as well. In my experience this happens like you mentioned where it was required for a time and then people who love it continue to use it and others revert back to what they had been doing or on to the newest thing!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I wish that the people who decide we need just one more thing on our plates would do more research and invest more long-term into new ideas so that we could see more benefit from fewer implementations!
DeleteI agree, whenever I see a group picture I cringe because I know not everyone has photo permission for social media. I know in some schools some grades have private Facebook groups. I think that helps with privacy.
ReplyDeleteEven private Facebook groups seem insecure to me. I don't believe that anything is really private on the Internet, and I cringe at the amount of information that students are willing to share online, thinking that it is private.
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