How local blogs can create communities

 

Having blogged for quite a time now, I know through my own personal experience that blogs are a great way of creating and nuturing a community. My colleagues at Nodehill who've also been bitten by the blogging bug have found the same and more and more are talking about coming on board in the near future. The blogging ball has definitely started to roll and it's inspiring to see. The pupils' reaction to all our blogs has been very positive and they seem to really appreciate the fact that we are publishing their work and encouraging them to leave comments. Of course, we now musn't let them power down in class, but make the big leap forward and carry on entering their Bebo-driven world.

The blogging culture I've been trying to nuture at Nodehill is starting to form, but only because we are all working together and keep bouncing our blog ideas off each other. The after school training of two weeks ago certainly helped and focused our thoughts on the huge potential of Web 2.0 tools to enhance learning.

So what is happening? Well, Lean Green Eco Machine is the latest blog to join the community. Created by seasoned blogger Richard Peace whose first blog Take the weather with you has already attracted over 1000 visitors since its launch. Richard's new venture is designed to record the efforts of the Eco-schools project which he has been spearheading for the last few years in the attempt of securing the coveted Green Flag award for our school. Already the blog is looking a marvellous fund of thought-provoking posts and photos. It is also interesting that CC Richard's adopted rabbit has seemingly multipied and now appears on both of his super blogs at the same time! It is also great to see how the Nodehill bloggers are advertising each other's blogs by using Blidgets. This has also certainly helped to create a sense of community as has leaving comments on each other's blogs too.

Carisbloggers the amazing blog from local primary school Carisbrooke CoE has also joined the club. Run by Kyra Ward who was first inspired by the potential of blogging after attending the Isle of Wight conference in October has kindly added all the Nodehill blogs to her blog roll and no doubt will add more as they appear. Talking of blog rolls, Gill Bushell, leader of RE at Nodehill was delighted that her blog was included in another roll on the Transformation Teachers Programme Blog. She was also thrilled to find another RE blog managed by the same author.

These are exciting times as we think how we can capitalize on the growing buzz around blogs. Following John Mills' lead and the blogs he has helped to create ay West Blatchington Primary School in Brighton, I'm thinking of setting up a lunch-time blogging and podcasting club, but not yet. The community needs to grow a bit more still. Watch this space though!

Comments

[Alex Savage]

Hi Joe
Sorry not to be in touch for a while. Y11 Coursework, YUK!!
We used a wordpress blog for students in the UK and USA to simply add moderated comments to a post. We then did a flashmeeting to discuss the issue of how we learn better. See http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/05/03/giving-ict-a-global-dimension .
On another tack, have you heard of Ning? It is a great social networking tool like my space? I've joined a few networks see http://comingofage.ning.com/ and http://nextgen.ning.com/
I'm going to try to write an article about Ning for the TES ICT blog in a few weeks time.
Seeya
Alex

[Joe Dale]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for dropping by. I watched your Flashmeeting and thought it was great. Your pupils seemed to really enjoy it too. I'm setting one up in June so we can communicate with the school we are linking with in Quebec, Canada.

I know of Ning through Paul Harrington and have created an account, but I've not joined a group yet. Could be fun ...

[Susan]

I'm now excited to have a mention on your blog, and to know that Gill Bushell is pleased to have a link on mine, and that she's visited my other RE blog ... I love this growing blog community that I'm becoming part of. I'm hoping to develop our RE blog, and I would love our pupils to become more active on that. These communities are a great way to be inspired and to learn about new ideas as they are being developed.

I'm part of a very small community on ning as well ... but my main problem is trying to find the time to visit all the blogs and communities I now have links with, and to post on my own blog. Can I keep it up?! Does anyone have any good time management tips?!!

[Joe Dale]

Hi Susan,

Are you using RSS and an aggregator like Bloglines? Have a look at this video which explains the concept well:
http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Feedwhip is another way to find out what is going on in your favourite blogs. It is like RSS, but the updates go straight to your email account.