Step 2 – Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

We’ve designed a series of nine steps, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

This second step is to set up blogging rules and guidelines on your class blog.

Why Have Blogging Rules and Guidelines?

An important part of using an online tool with your students is educating them on appropriate online behavior.  Just because your students grew up with technology doesn’t mean they appreciate or understand what is/isn’t appropriate to post online.

Your class blog provides an excellent opportunity to educate students, parents and other readers on proper online behavior such as:

1. Types of identifying information that is appropriate in posts and/or comments e.g., What are your rules about use of last names, IM, images and personal information?
2. What should/shouldn’t you write in posts and/or comments?

Deciding On Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

This is the type of task where you could decide on the rules and guidelines yourself or do as a whole of class activity (where you actively involve your students in the entire process).

Here are examples of different ways they are used on class blogs to help you with the task:

• 2KM @ Leopold Primary School! Our Blog Guidelines and General blogging information (Grade 2)
• Math Error Class Blogging Guidelines
• Mr. Salsich’s Class Blog Guidelines (Grade 3)
• Mr Mundorf’s Class Online Safety (Grade 5)
• Huzzah’s Commenting Guidelines (Grade 5/6)
• Endless Questions Responsible Blogging (Grade 6-8 )
• Mr. Pfluger’s Discussion Corner Blog Guidelines (Grade 6)
• Our Space Student blogging Guidelines (Year 6)
• Mr. M’s History Blog Posting Comments (Grade 8 )
• Mr Jorgensen’s Blogging Guidelines (Grade 8 )
• Mr B’s Box Parent Information about our blogs
• Scattergood Biology How To Post and Comment
• Biology in Action Blogging Guidelines (High School and College)

The Two Page Blog Guide For Parents by Kathleen McGeady is an excellent idea for a parent resource.

If you want to include Online Safety activities as part of the process then, Larry Ferlazzo’s The Best Sites For Learning Online Safety post is a good starting place to identify suitable resources.

Setting Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines

Once you’ve decided what you want to include in your rules and guidelines it is now just a case of publishing them on your blog.

You would normally publish them on a Page rather than in a post because pages are ideal for important information like this that you don’t expect to update frequently. However, if you also wanted to discuss your rules with your students and readers you might write a post like Miss W. has done.

Here’s information to help you with working with pages:

1. Differences between Posts and Pages
2. Writing Pages
3. Most class blogs use blog themes that have navigational links to Pages at the top of the theme e.g., Mr. Salsich’s blog. Links at the top of the theme make it easier to navigate pages.
4. The 137 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier
5. Taking The Agony Out Of Using Custom Image Headers
6. Use the Pages widget for blog themes that don’t include navigational links — here is how you change your sidebar widgets!

FINAL THOUGHTS

These steps were originally created as part of the preparation for the Student Blogging Challenge (the next challenge starts September, 2010).

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

1. About the student challenge
2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

And here’s where you find the other steps for setting up your class blog:

• Step 1 – Set up your class blog
• Step 2 – Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines
• Step 3 – Teaching Commenting Skills and Etiquette – Guest post by Kathleen McGeady
• Step 4 – Help Parents Connect With Your Class Blog
• Step 5 – Add Students To Your Class Blog So They Can Write Posts
• Step 6 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
• Step 7 – Setting Up Student blogs
• Step 8 – Add your student blogs to your blogroll
• Step 9 – Add Your Student Blogs To A Folder In Google Reader

Please a comment on this post:

1. If you have any problems or questions while setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!
2. If you have advice for other educators on setting up their blogging rules and guidelines or have resources we should check out!

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