I’ve run into several problems running blogs in my classroom. Hopefully this information will help you bypass all of the problems I’ve experienced.
I’ve run into several problems running blogs in my classroom. Hopefully this information will help you bypass all of the problems I’ve experienced.
The post is inappropriate and doesn’t sound like something that student would write…
Ok, so when I started all of this blogging stuff, I had a student post inappropriate material under another student’s name. After notating the IP address listed on the post, I ran a search through all of the posts to find who really owned the post. I spoke to both parties – separately. First to the person with his name on the post – just to verify it was not him for some reason and posting while at a friend’s house or something. He was a REALLY good student, so his shock and denial was genuine (at least that is how I interpreted it). I spoke to the owner of the IP address and explained that if the comment needed to be made – #1 it needed to be rephrased into school appropriate language, and #2 it needed to reflect his name. I expressed that he needed to take ownership for his own opinions. It turned out that the two students where having a fight, and he wanted to get his friend in trouble. I further explained that the IP addresses tell me who is posting each message.
After speaking to the two students, I removed the comment from the site and explained to my classes that if they were going to post, they needed to take ownership for their opinions. It is alright to disagree with me or others on the site, but it needs to be done in a mature way.
What to do when the server crashes, it’s the end of the quarter, and students are rushing to get their final responses in for credit…
Just like any lesson plan, make sure you have a back up. The one major suggestion with technology is have a couple of alternatives.
When this exact situation happened to me this year, I immediately instituted several different alternatives for students. I created a separate webpage on another server from the one I usually use, and created links to it on the school website. I provided an additional option to earn a larger portion of the points through a larger assignment, but still via the original format through the blog websites. However, these points were not enough to clear the required number needed for the assignment.
Accelerated students were asked to accrue 120 points in nine weeks; the additional option provided the opportunity to earn 50 points. Completing this alone would not even earn enough for students to pass on the assignment.
Finally, I printed 30 copies of 10 of the posts students needed to respond to and attached the original prompt from the blog site. These were filed in the classroom and students were allowed to submit responses in handwritten form.
All of these back-up plans come in handy, but this year is the first time I have ever needed any of them after working online with students for over two years. Overall, that’s not a bad track record. I do not plan on removing the online aspects of the course, but I will be adjusting the assignment the students will be working off of.
But my computer broke… I don’t have a computer at home… I couldn’t make it to the library this weekend… I sent it, didn’t you get it?…
All the wonderful excuses that will occur with this assignment.
Provide a long turn around time to ensure students have the opportunity to make it into the school’s computer lab and complete the assignment. Remember to consider the time that the computer lab may be closed due to activities or testing. Normally, I provide at least one week for responses; this seems to be long enough that students can juggle their schedules around, but not so long that they forget about the assignment.
As for the excuse of “I sent it, didn’t you get it?” Institute a standard that students need to copy their emails to themselves so it can easily be resent, or print out their submission before pressing the “submit comment” button, or save it on a flash drive that can be brought in to show me the save date on the file and the file itself.