37 Children, 6 Days and 180 comments
Saturday 12 May 2007 at 7:10 pm. Used tags: blogging, mobile, technology, web2
We got back from our Netherlands 2007 trip this morning after a rather tiring drive through the night.I think we made a pretty good fist of blogging the trip and I am beginning to think about what went right and what didn't work so well with the way we handled the blogging, I might have better thoughts once I've had a good night's sleep.
The main focus of the blog was communication with the parent and it certainly hit that nail on the head. The reaction from the parents and from the children when I read the comments on the buss proved that.
But I am starting to think of other possibilities:
The trip was not really designed for the children to do written work, our timetable is packed and I was relying on volunteers to try posts during the bus journey. This meant not every child was posting and the posts were pretty much the first thing that the bloggers thought of.
It might be possible to build in some whole group reflection time where diaries and blogs would be kept uptodate, but we would not want it to feel like school.
Maybe we could have a blog/pod team organised on a room basis and give them a wee bit of time each day (maybe they could stay up a little later then they would not miss out other things).
An internet connection in the hotel would have been good, I posted shivering in the dusk from the town square with a t-mobile pay as you go wifi one evening, a cosy cafe was better the next night and I am afraid I had to shelter in Macdonalds on a third.
The Netherlands Moblog was a good idea, but unfortunately my kludge to get it working left no facility for comments, this could be a really good tool.I made the firsts UK post and the last one via a bluetooth mobile, this worked very well and didn't cost too much. I posted one quick post, one small photo and about 6 words, from the Netherlands and it cost about £4! I'd like to investigate getting a dutch sim for another time.
I lost my MP3 recorder on the first day, but even then it was apparent that the children really need time to think and rehearse even informal podcasts. Again time would need to be made for this if it was to include all the children.
We had another tech disaster when a card in a camera with a load of great pictures and video got corrupt. Very disappointing.
Overall I am quite pleased with how the web 2 aspect of the trip turned out (other aspects were good too) but it is really another scratch in the surface suggesting lots of ways to do it better.
Now all I've got to do is read a weeks worth of email I think I'll leave my fed reader for tomorrow.
three comments
Great to hear the trip went well and you all got back safely. We had very few opportunities to get ‘live blogging’ when on my recent trip, but, like you, it’s given me plenty of thoughts for future trips.
It is a learning process, and the next time I go I’ll hopefully have a number of blogging/podcasting kids who can do the online updates… that way I can concentrate on actually leading the visit!
I’d be very keen to go over your ideas and compare notes at eLive in Edinburgh if you’re up for it?
Cheers!
Mr W (Email) (URL) - 13-05-’07 14:38Hi Neil,
John (Email) (URL) - 14-05-’07 19:25Definitely one of the best things about this trip was thinking about how it could have been even more interesting.
I’ll see you at eLive or teachMeet07
I too have just come back from an educational/ outdoor activities trip with my class. My instinct would have been to try to blog and communicate with the folks back home but the DHT and other staff believed that we should leave the technology back at school so I was outvoted. Had I decided to blog, I am sure that not all children would have been interested but some definitely would. Just not sure whether we should have or not?
Shirley (Email) (URL) - 14-05-’07 19:52