1) First in my mind is intro (what is a blog, have you used one, if so which). What makes a blog popular? Are they all public? Where are they being used (pick a topic the youth are interested in and search or go to their favorite site). Post a comment (ideally show a couple examples/have them post with text, photo, video clip)

2) Learn to and get comfortable posting comments. Use to launch discussion of writing comfort, etiquette and conversation control.

3) What does it take to start one and then to become a “blogger?” How often should you write? Try creating a blog as a team of 2-4 together to share the writing. Pick things you might blog about first.

4) Write some short things for the blog. Feedback: how was it to post?

5) Hot blogging: how to build momentum, readership and participants? How can you use it to impact a topic?

All of the written stuff is definitely doable, but I don’t think the kids will be able to help produce more than one PSA for next month due to time constraints and general kid flakiness. Now if it would be worthwhile for us to produce PSAs without kid involvement, we might be able to crank out another, but I don’t know how interesting that would be to kids or funders.

This sounds very good. In addition to the technical and the mind-set pieces you mention, I recommend thinking about a short motivational intro– a “what makes blogging fun for me” kind of thing. Idealy done by the kids as a video at the end of the current class.

The main thing is to get the following deliverables in the bag by mid December:

1. a PSA video (or two) for posting on the site

2. a brief written curriculum to go with them — one version in kid language for the site, and then package that with an intro for youth workers and organizations to briefly explain how blogging on PSO can help their kids reach larger audiences and show off their programs — and then suggest ways of training kids.

If this last piece seems too difficult, we can revisit this in January — perhaps working it into the site review and tweaking part of the Mac proposal.

How does this sound?

Thanks for the feedback. Just to respond quickly to your first comment about the differences between the current blog curriculum and what we did over the summer, I’ve been working toward improving upon the former in several key areas. As I recall, last summer we merely asked them to start writing in a vaguely civic fashion without taking the time either to define that in a comprehensive way or, crucially, evaluate and have them reflect on what they produced. The new blog curriculum will do both, fulfilling several of the new learning goals in the process, all while keeping it engaging for the kids. Easy, right? Well, it’s all a work in progress, so we’ll see how close we can get it.

Deen -

All of this looks great, and if I’m not mistaken is covered in the blog curriculum you created for the summer session. Does the summer curriculum need any amendments?

Splitting the technical aspects of blogging from the how to is necessary. Especially, since this is an after school program. Jumping from seven hours of work to another 1.5-2.0 hours of work can be a drag. We need to avoid overloading the kids whenever possible. Keeping it simple and fun will ultimately lead to increased engagement. I suggest we try and keep the lecturing to a minimum.

I propose the we create a technical guide for the site; as well as, a technical “how to” for the kids involved in the editorial/leadership management groups. We would be naive to assume all the kids that come through the program know how to post, link, format… There are some creative ways to post the technical guide, stop animation being one. Or, the kids create a “how to vidoe” along with their normative video. We’ve talked about doing some contests to bring in users. A video contest would be a great way to get a technical guide and market the site.

Another key topic you touched on is tolerence. In my humble opinion, this is a seperate training. We need to teach young people about tolerence and how to respectfuly share opinions and ideas. I would hate for our diverse users to steer avoid the site because it doesn’t feel inclusive. We can explore turning this into a training module in further detail down the road.

We need to make sure and add a piece on how to provide constructive feedback. Modeling is a great way to demonstrate what we are looking for during the feedback session. Developing a safe environment is a must. Plus, it builds on the tolerence theme you talked about in your post. Normally, this can be accomplished with some ground rules or tips that remind participants that the intent of the feedback is to hone

Not sure about the issues with the PSO test site. I’ve seen a number of new posts and easily added one the other day. We can also talk about the best place to house their posts at a later meeting.

Whenever possible, I propose we create PowerPoints of our presentations. They are clean, easily shared, and offer wonderful visuals. Another bonus is you can incorporate the web into your presentations. Wouldn’t it be nice to link to the PSO blogging video during your presentation. Also, we’re trying to get young people to use technology.