Education Sector

Queries we receive about blogging range from schools seeking advice about how their policies and use agreements could be adapted to incorporate blogging, through to specific advice when dealing with cases of harassment and other offensive or inappropriate use of these sites. 

Based on this experience, here are NetSafe’s Safety Tips for schools considering breaking into the blogsphere.
 

Have a sound reason for doing it. You will be challenged by the school community at some point, probably from a standpoint of ‘is this appropriate?’  The move into blogging should be based on sound educational reasoning, so it can be demonstrated that the benefits outweigh the risks. 

Ensure staff are competent.  Teachers administering class blogs need to be confident about doing this, and competent enough to respond appropriately ‘in the first instance’ to incidents.  They also need to be confident enough to answer questions from parents should they arise.  Perhaps staff should have a term or so to get used to blogging in a closed forum (i.e. no public access).  Each staff member could have a turn at being the administrator while other staff make posts.
  

Review policies and use agreements with staff and students.  Do this prior to starting the blogs.  It should act as a reminder about their obligations and responsibilities. You might also want to check beforehand that posting to the Internet is covered. 
 

Check consent forms.  If students will be posting to the web, are parents aware of this and have they given consent? 
 

Educate users about their ‘digital footprints’.  It is unrealistic nowadays to tell young people not to post their information online.  Most teenagers have been doing so on social network sties since before teachers even heard the word blog.  But this does not mean that students should not be educated about how information they post can be used to build a profile of them, which may not always be accurate, or desirable.  

Choose a site for the entire school and look for one that:

• Is designed for education. This is more likely to align with your schools aims and the associated community will have an education focus.  The facility may already exist in your schools learning management software.
• Is recommended by other teachers.  Don’t let your school be guinea pigs for a site trying to cash in on the latest thing in education.
• Has an upfront usage policy.  This should be clear, easy to find, and contain guidance on appropriate use of the site.  Look for a procedure for reporting inappropriate use also.
• Is easy to learn.  Choose a simple site that minimises opportunities to make mistakes.
• Allows posts and comments to be reviewed by teachers before they are published to the site.  Don’t rely on site based moderators or filters to ensure postings are appropriate.  These are too easily circumvented.  Like it or not, the quality of the blog postings reflect directly on your school and your teaching.
•  Uses passwords to control access.  Only approved users should be able to administer the site and post, and such activity should be trackable.  Each student should have a unique login and students must be taught not to share their passwords.
•  Allows posts to be deleted.  

Lastly, think about whether it matters if the blogs are available to the wider web.  Decide who the students are posting for and consider restricting access to this community.