Me and my blog

Put a child in front of a computer and you can be sure they will know how to play games and find some good joke websites on the internet. But put pupils from the after-school 'blogging' club at Hangleton Community Junior School in Hove, West Sussex, in front of a computer and they'll show you web pages they've created themselves.

One Monday afternoon in May, as the final bell went, I joined Hangleton's bloggers — a group of pupils who, rather than leaving school, were filing back into the computer suite. My mission: to find out more about blogging, Hangleton style.

'Blogging' comes from the word 'weblog', meaning a self-published website. Weblogs differ from conventional sites in that you don't need to know any complicated coding or have file transfer skills; you simply log on, write about your chosen subject and then post it on the internet. Most bloggers update their sites every couple of days or so. "It's websites made easy," says Peter Ford, director of ICT 4 Schools, the organisation that supplied Hangleton with the tools needed to form its blogging club — a domain name and 100 sites — for just £200.

John Mills, a Year 3 teacher at Hangleton, runs the club. "I spent the first couple of sessions teaching them the basics and now they just get on with it," he says. And he's not wrong — the blogging room is full of pupils sitting in front of screens. They type a little, then lean over to their neighbours. There are 19 children in the club and their sites cover subjects ranging from sports and food to computer games and books.

The project has generated a lot of pride. "We're the first junior school to do it," I'm told by Stephen, aged 10, who is writing about wrestling. Stephen chose wrestling as his subject matter because he "knows loads about it". His motivation for creating his weblog is the same as that of all the other pupils: he wants lots of people to read what he has written.

Each blogger has a secret password, which they use to make changes to their site from just about anywhere — the school club on a Monday afternoon, or anywhere else they log on, such as the local library or at home. The password also allows them to see the most important information of all — how many hits they're getting.

Daniel, a Year 3 member of the after-school club, is eight. His site focuses on some of the football teams in the Premiership, and has had over 500 hits. Daniel's mum has helped him gather details on key players and their photos. His own personality often comes through in the writing — a 'boo' when he reports a result where his favourite team, Wolverhampton, is beaten, or a 'va-va-voom' for a victory.

This personal touch is a key aspect of all blogs. Tom Coates is an award-winning blogger and web producer, and has been blogging for five years. "Because people are writing every day and uploading what they write straight away, blogs do tend to have a very personal voice," he says.

Tom Watson, the MP for West Bromwich East, has certainly found this. He believes his blog has made him seem far more human and approachable to his constituents, even though it frequently deals with areas of his life that have no bearing on politics.

Tom Coates was enthusiastic about the Hangleton project and its benefits. He had positive advice to offer about children and the internet, an area that often worries parents. "It's a bit like teaching children how to cross the road safely," he says. "Rather than not letting children cross the road, you teach them how to deal with it. And with blogs, what parent isn't going to like their child spending a half-hour or so a day writing?"

Indeed, blogging is beneficial to pupils' learning on a whole range of fronts, as Mr Mills is keen to emphasise. "The children have to read, to find the information to write, so it's great for literacy," he explains. "And it's obviously good for ICT as they are working with design and the internet. Publishing on the web is something that is usually tackled by Year 8s, but this group is made up of Years 3, 4 and 5."

The club helps develop children's confidence and communication skills, too.

At the moment, the weblog visitors are curious schoolmates. In a couple of weeks, however, the weblogs go live and the pupils will present their pages to the rest of the school during an assembly. Once they are live, the competition for hits is sure to hot up.

The hour with the bloggers goes by fast. I've learnt what weblogs are and seen how they work. I've also learnt that children want an audience — and there's no inspiration quite like writing for an audience the size of the worldwide web.

Why not log on to www.hangletonweblogs.org to see the sites yourself?

What about unwanted attention?

The website www.websafecrackerz.com (run by MSN) advises children on what is and isn't suitable to post in blogs to prevent unwanted adult attention. Children should be warned by the teacher about the dangers involved in giving away too much information about themselves. For example, they should never say where they live or which school they go to.

The software from ICT 4 Schools (their website is listed below) notifies the teacher each time a site is changed. The teacher can also filter whether that child receives any incoming messages on their site from the outside world or not. Happy blogging!

Further information

ICT 4 Schools' website
www.ICT4Schools.info

Teacher John Mills' website for schools
www.learn2blog.org

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Gizmodo
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www.gizmodo.com

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www.Dear_raed.blogspot.com

Things my girlfriend and I have argued about
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This content was published in July 2004 and may not reflect current policy