I have been doing a few presentations on blogging and forums to rollout our Community Server product and it has been a bit of a challenge. I am finding that many educators don’t have experiences with online forums, and they get confused when I speak about blogs and forums as something separate. I will have to come up with something, to add to my presentations.

It seems now I’m being called by a few names “Mr. Blog�, “The Blog King� and “Blogger� I don’t mind, if it means a little more awareness and that others will try to blog. I feel like a blogvangelist at times, but I know that the students will benefit in the end. I also believe we can build a collaborative online community. We have the right people, it’s just giving them a reason to do it on a personal level.

Well we have Community Server running on our board intranet now. It was a bit of a struggle getting there, but we now have blogs for all educators and staff at the TCDSB, as well as discussion forums. We couldn’t go with the photo sharing feature that Community Server offers becuase of the “load� on the SQL servers. We have a really awesome member in Computer Services who was helping me set up the backend and doing some fine tuning of the product. He was really helpful with the asp code.

What can I say, I’m a php and mysql guy, not asp.net, of course our board has to be a Microsoft shop. I am learning a little asp, and perhaps by the end of my stint as a resource teacher I will have a good grasp of it.

In the next version of Community Server 2.0, you can specifiy the maximum file size for pictures, which will make it easier on our SQL server. It also has some other great features like a built in RSS reader, document sharing and a more configurable admin panel.

Now the REAL challenge, what was that line “If you build it, they will come.� Well, I’m not sure. It is going to take a lot of work to get educators and staff on board, but I really hope they will see the benefits of collaborating and sharing information on our intranet. It will be interesting to see if a groundswell develops around these communicative environments.

Who knows, if it is successful iniatiative, there is lots of potential for expansion. I’m really hoping that there will be teachers who immediately see the benefits of using these tools with their students, ask for the tools, and hopefully we can accomodate them.

Anne over at EduBlog Insights posted this great list of guidelines for students who are blogging. Anne points out that we are encouraging students to write differently when they blog.

For students:

* practice writing their thoughts about what they are learning, what they understand and don’t understand, why it is meaningful or not
* making connections to their learning by exploring what others have written about it on the web
* contributing their ideas on how our schools could be restructured to have them excited about and believing that they will actually use the information they have acquired in school. What’s relevant to them and what and why do they need to learn?
* striving to improve your writing and take risks with expressing your ideas and bouncing those ideas off of a much larger audience
* providing a good model of blogging that will convince others that you are thinking and learning (and improving your writing)
* developing a distinct voice that will make a difference
* striving for writing that matters
* expressing your opinion but backing it up with well thought out reasons
* learning to collaborate
* asking questions that will make a reader think and want to comment
* realizing that inappropriate comments can be handled in such a way that negates their impact

A great starting point for any teacher wanting to blog with their students.