Shelbie Witte, a middle school teacher in Ft. Riley, KS, successfully transferred her Talkback middle school-university two-way journaling program to blog format, only to have the program put to a stop by administrator. While reading some of the middle school students' entries, an administrator found mention of the neighborhood in which one student lived. Although Witte's students all had parental permission and were posting using pseudonyms and Witte's school email address, "the administrator felt that the student could become a victim of an online predator" and the Talkback project was forced to revert to paper journals (Witte 94). Indeed, young people writing online have a tendency "to disclose a great deal of personal identifying information online," which may understandably make teachers, administrators, and parents nervous about required blogging (Huffaker in Davis and McGrail 76).
Still, the public nature of blogging is precisely what many students find so motivating when they are assigned to write online. Case studies and research on blogging in the writing classroom show that there are effective ways to protect students.
- Have students write under pseudonyms. Shelbie Witte gave students her e-mail address and had them write under assumed names (Witte 93). Kathy Cassidy has her elementary school students use only their first names (Cassidy 2).
- Use a platform that allows the blog administrator to approve all post and comments. Cassidy recommends Classblogmeister.com, which is developed especially for teacher and classroom use. "The best feature of Blogmeister," Cassidy writes, "is that you as a teacher get to approve every word that is posted on your blog or on the blogs of your students. That means that each time one of your students writes an article, you have to give it your approval before it is put on the Internet. Every comment that your students receive, whether from a parent, a friend, or someone unknown, also has to be approved by the teacher before it is posted online" (Cassidy 2). Blogger, Tumblr, and Wordpress platforms all have options for a blog administrator to approve comments. These platforms also have options for password protecting posts. A classroom password could be chosen that allows teachers, students, and recruited readers to view the blog, but would limit access to outsiders.
- Prepare teachers to protect students. Angela Pascopella and Will Richardson note the importance of teacher preparation. Teachers must have "the tools necessary to maintain complete oversight of what's occurring online" and be educated about "the legal implications of inappropriate use" (Pascopella and Richardson 49). Teachers must understand how the blogs work, understand how to control privacy settings, and have a clear set of rules for what is and is not appropriate. Teachers must also communicate with students on these issues.
- Prepare students to protect themselves. Anne P. Davis and Ewa McGrail undertook a weekly blogging class with fifth graders. They left the blogs open to the public, but made sure to "directly and systematically" address safe use guidelines and responsible blogging practices with the children (Davis and McGrail 76). This includes teaching students to not reveal any personal information and giving them a plan for dealing with the unexpected. If Davis' and McGrail's students "received anything online that made them feel uncomfortable, they were to minimize their screens and immediately report concerns to the teacher" (ibid).
