At the recent IT@Cork Conference a school principal/teacher asked Robert Scoble about blogs and school kids blogging. I think the principal/teacher was worried about kids blogging and revealing too much information about themselves. I wonder how much the fear of predators contributes to schools and parents preventing kids from going online.
Trouble is, trying to discourage kids from blogging will be counter-productive. They’re curious, they’ll want to be independent, they have a lot to say. So perhaps kids should be taught how to blog when they are taught how to use computers. Blogging could be a serious tool for the likes of debating, english assignments and learning how to frame arguments. Seeing how your peers blog and how they think would be an excellent means of furthering ones education surely?
I think I mentioned this in another post, but I’ll say it again: Scoble made a great point that he wished that his son’s teachers blogged so he’d know what they were covering in school. I like this idea a lot. A single daily post from each teacher would be good. For primary schools anyway, doubt this would work with secondary schools though, so perhaps a weekly post from each subject teacher.
In an email chat with Ina O’Murchu she mentioned how DERI have given classes on the semantic web to refugees in the area and that Brendan Smith the DERI outreach officer is in the process of setting up blogs for 40 schools in Galway. Definitely something to watch and see how it goes.
