Blog the News is a news-site for pupils, teachers and classes that blog. It will bring together a wealth of exciting news, views and creativity from around our blogging classes and schools, providing both a wider audience for our pupils’ learning and achievements, and a window into the different ways that blogs are being used nationally and internationally for better learning.
Tell us some more…
It centres around the notion of transforming classrooms into local newsrooms, filled with reporters and editorial teams, dealing with authentic issues, news-worthy material and stories. Children and teachers who ‘see’ themselves as reporters and editors should have a wider platform for their output. At the very least, it will be an way of breathing an authenticity into report writing units.
What about the school newspaper?
Blog the News will hopefully model a 21st century way of running school ‘newspapers’ that is efficient and that makes effective use of the exciting content already being created on class blogs. Its principles and supporting technology should be simple enough to be applied at the school level.
How on earth are we going to find the time to take part in Blog the News?
The beauty of Blog the News is that you will already be producing much content on your class or project blog that would make great reading for the Blog the News site’s readership. Furthermore, the Blog the News site will automagically check your site for content that you have earmarked for submission and copy it automatically for potential inclusion on Blog the News. After you’ve registered your interest, you simply simple need to add a ‘BlogtheNews’ tag to your post and the rest will be taken care of automatically.
What do you mean by ‘potential inclusion’ on Blog the News? Can’t we just automatically send you everything that we produce?
Blog the News cannot guarantee that every submission will be published.
One of the principles behind Blog the News is that editorial processes are developed at the local class or school level before submission. Editorial teams in class should discuss and choose which pieces should be submitted to Blog the News. This might be a dedicated ‘news’ team but could also be the simple result of a class discussion during a lesson plenary.
Blog the News will seek to publish as many submissions as possible but the editorial cooperation of teachers and pupils at the local level will be crucial to ensuring it is manageable and sustainable. We also want to the reporters and writers to feel that their work has undergone editorial scrutiny to heighten the sense of achievement at being published.
What sort of content can we submit to Blog the News?
The basic structure of Blog the News is flexible to allow the expertise of teachers and pupils to define how the site and project should grow. Think of it as a snazzy Sunday Newspaper with lots of news categories and potential supplements. You send us interesting content and we’ll find a suitable place on the site for it.
Blog the News will also allow the educational blogging community to collect responses to major events, such as recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand. It might also provide the opportunity to raise the profile of important local issues that are often overlooked at the national level.
In summary, the participants in Blog the News will decide on the project’s direction by what they create and share with the rest of us.
Our class have produced 30 brilliant poems/news reports/science experiments/fill in your own blanks. We can’t choose which ones to submit to Blog the News.
Three options:
- Submit 30 poems in the knowledge that most will not be included on the site and that the current two-man editorial team at Blog the News will struggle even more with their work-life balance
- Discuss and agree as a class which poems best reflect the excellence of the activity and submit those for inclusion.
- Create an digital slideshow or online book of all poems and tag that as a single submission to Blog the News.
How much is Blog the News going to cost?
Blog the News is free and will remain free. All costs are covered by Creative Blogs.
How do we get involved?
Fill in the form on our Getting Involved page and we’ll set stuff up for you.
Got any further questions, thoughts or ideas?
We would love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment or use our contact form.
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