Responsible Blogging

Note: This was originally posted in a slightly different form in May 2005. I am reposting it on the front page to use with a group of students today.

Responsible Blogging Lesson Plan:

Objectives:
At end of the lesson, students will:

• Recognize the potential dangers of irresponsible blogging
• Write an "Acceptable Blog Use" policy for our class
• Be ready to begin the responsible use of blogs in our class.

Reading Materials:

• "Local Authorities are becoming concerned over teen blogging" from the Sikeston, MO Standard Democrat
• "Safety R Us" from Weblogg-ed.com
• "More on Safety" from Bud The Teacher
• "Blog Policy" from Bud The Teacher's Wiki

Lesson:

• Students will read links online
  
• Take notes on thoughts (15 minutes)
• Discussion #1 - What are some of the potential dangers of blogging discussed in these articles? Which of these concerns are legitimate? Why or why not? What other dangers are there in blogging that were not discussed in the articles? (10 minutes)
• Discussion #2 - (Students will respond as a comment on this post) What type of situations should our class blog policy cover? What are appropriate consequences for breaking the policy? (10 minutes)
• After the discussion, students will get in groups of 3-4, and come up with a list of 3 rules they feel should be included in our class blog policy. They also will have to come up with consequences (10 minutes)
• Students put rules on the board (5 minutes)
• Discussion - What rules are we missing? (This will just be brainstorming...no shooting ideas down). What rules do you disagree with? (Disagreements will be put to a majority vote) - (15 minutes)
• Follow up: I will type of the policy, and have students sign a copy of it the following class.