Children & Technology: Would You Let Your Child Start a Blog?
This post is by regular contributor Catherine Oehlman aka Squigglemum.
“Mum, can I have my own blog now I’m six?” I stared blankly at my daughter while internally processing my response… “Not yet… maybe when you’re older… hang on yes… yes, of course… no, don’t be ridiculous… NO WAY… but then again…” In the end all I said was, “I’ll talk to Daddy about it.”
Our children are already consumers online, but have you considered your child as a producer of online content?
The ability for anyone to publish anything online is a two edged sword. On the one hand it means that the authenticity and accuracy of content isn’t guaranteed. On the other, it grants an audience to anyone who wants one.
An audience is a powerful thing. After all, what is a writer without a reader? Often as educators we talk about giving children real world experiences, yet with the exception of a couple of activities like letters-to-the-editor and invitations to the Mother’s Day concert, we offer relatively few real writing opportunities.
No matter how appealing we make an activity, any written task without a real purpose and real audience lacks depth, and is unlikely to produce the highest quality work from students. However, purposeful written activities which are guaranteed to reach an audience often inspire even the most reluctant young writer.
Scary as it is, perhaps then we should consider the benefits of taking our young readers and writers online. I am not for a moment suggesting we let under eights loose on the internet! I do think though that parents and educators should look beyond “educational games” marketed at our kids, and consider instead opportunities for purposeful use of the web.
The notion raises a range of questions… Will our children be safe? At what age do we feel it is appropriate for the kids in our care? Could they be exposed to more than we are comfortable with? Should we use names or pseudonyms, or keep kids entirely anonymous? What effect will it have long term on their digital footprint? And then there are questions to ask of ourselves… Are we confident enough with current technology to be able to provide online guidance? How can we ensure our skills remain up to date? Which programs and platforms will be of most value in this context? All of these questions and more require serious thought before walking children onto the web.
If we can find satisfactory answers to our questions, there are undoubtedly benefits in allowing our kids to create content online. For example:
- Instant publishing – this is one of the biggest drawcards with blogs. You write it, and you hit publish. It’s instantly available for others to access.
- Real audience – an online audience is not a virtual audience. It is made up of real people, beyond just the classroom teacher or parent.
- Worldwide readers – work may be read by others all around the globe! The web makes the world a very small place.
- Facility for interaction and feedback – this is an advantage not usually available with print media. Via commenting systems, a reader can interact directly with a writer, providing instant feedback, purposeful questioning and additional content.
- Purpose driven – there is a real reason to write well, because the purpose is always to communicate effectively.
In addition, allowing children to begin creating content requires them to develop a broad range of knowledge and skills relating to technology. We must remember that today’s kids are accessing touch screens as toddlers, and will need to be literate in ways that didn’t even exist when we were kids!
So how will I – as a mother, a teacher, and a blogger, respond to my daughter’s request? Although I’m still working through some of the questions I mentioned, I think I can guide her early steps into purposeful writing online. But believe me, they will be baby steps!
Would you let your child start a blog? Why or why not?
{Image: Used with permission ~ picklebums.com}
How about a wiki amongst your child’s friendship group rather than a blog? It would still be an authentic audience- but it would be a safer, more protected forum for younger writers. I found that when my teaching team set them up with our grade ones and twos it became a fantastic resource for learning, but still protected our littlies from the wider internet. Just a thought.
Thanks for your input Caroline. Great to hear that teachers in the lower grades are using wikis with students!
Three of my five children have their own blogs. Their age ranges are from 6 to 12 years old. Their interest in it waxes and wains but I think it is a great idea. It is wonderful written expression and a fun way to journal. They enjoy adding pictures and short updates. I am very confused about the fear of letting little ones blog. This is the perfect age. You can monitor any comments via your own email address. My bigger concern is with the older children who may have their own email addresses and are more technologically savvy.
We used to have a wiki for the kids, their friends and cousins that was free and the kids loved it. Then there was a fee to use it so we shut it down. The Wiki is a great idea if you want to keep it all private. You could do a team blog as well and authorize different email address to post.
Thanks Margaret. So impressed to hear that three of your kids are already bloggers!
I think it would be great- just as long as they know online safety rules and you make sure you pre-read before they can submit.
I’d be thrilled if my child asked me if he could start a blog 😉 and hope that he will, when he can read and write.
Definitely yes, but only if we did it together at this age. I think, it’s a novelty for them, as they see you doing it, they want one, too. We had the same question about websites : “Can I have my own website?” And the answer was “Sure, let’s make one together” But then again, we had it with a book, too- so we made a book with them 🙂
Yep – I agree Rita. Doing things like this *with* the kids is so important.
I have absolutely no doubt that my daughter will probably have a blog.
She’ll need to wait until she is old enough to be able to spell words etc. (currently just learning) and I will make her think about it and perhaps have a purpose or thing, not just a personal blog as such. And I’d probably have to OK the posts before they go live. Like anything, with correct supervision.
I think that’s about where I’m at with my daughter too Mandy 🙂
I would totally let my kids write a blog… at any age, but who I let access that blog is a whole other question! 🙂
I don’t see a blog as any different to any other kind of journalling, it is just the medium that is different and I feel confident that there are plenty of ways I can restrict access to any blog my children may write and help them learn how to stay safe. I actually feel more comfortable with them writing a blog than I do with them sharing on facebook or other social media sites… which is interesting.
Our school has just recently begun discussing the idea of a school blog… early days but the suggestion is that it would be like an extension of the newsletter with the students being able to share more of the school events with the wider community. With supervision and teaching I think this is a wonderful idea and not so different sharing information via more ‘old fashioned’ methods such as a paper newsletter or article in a local paper.
I agree Kate. I think there is a degree of control with blogging that is perhaps a little more elusive in social media.
I don’t have kids, but I think it’s a great idea. I’m a young writer/college student, and I say the earlier you can encourage a kid to start writing, the more equipped they’ll be for the future. Blogging is great practice for any writer, young or old, because it’s simply practice at writing. Learning by writing is the most effect method, in my experience (though reading and so on definitely should be included), but actually practicing by writing is a huge self-teaching tool. Sounds like your daughter already has the desire, I say go for it. My dad, Fred Lybrand, has put together a course on writing (http://www.advanced-writing-resources.com), which helps with how to teach children to write, it’s where I’ve learned a lot of powerful principles concerning writer-development. I’m starting to break into the blogging, finally, and I feel well equipped to start. Once again, I vote yes for your daughter, and if I had kids of my own, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them the same.
If anyone is interested Brad Huddleston author of The Dark Side of Technology is going to be in se qld in August speaking at a number of schools, churches etc. He loves technology & teaches kids & parents how they can protect themselves from the nasties out there. Probably a good resource for all parents. (http://www.bradhuddleston.com/)
I’m really interested in this Kirsten, but couldn’t find any details about the SE Qld event on the website??
My friend Ruth is working with him & organizing his itinerary, it’s not finalized yet so you could possibly get him to speak at your school if you wanted. Her contact email details are rarnold(at) ccclive.tv. I’m on the gold coast & I know he’s speaking at varsity college where my husband teaches & also doing a combined night for parents of a few schools around this area. Ruth will be able to give you more details. I hope that helps.
Depends if they had a focus on what their potential content would be. If my child was really focused on spreading the word about something that was important to them, I would help them, but I would be doing most of it for him until he is able to use the technology properly and responsibly. Right now he’s only six (turns 6 tomorrow) and doesn’t really understand, care, nor fully grasp the concept of online content…especially how it should be utilized or composed responsibly.
I absolutely would, I think it’s a great idea. Children need authentic reasons to write and a blog would give them that. Of course I would set up guidelines – I have done this with six and seven year olds in the classroom. They would write messages to mum and dad or family members overseas. They also wrote stories. All posts and comments were moderated by me.
I can’t find the guidelines we used right now. I will try and find them and come back to share. They were an excellent foundation for children to learn about internet safety.
My 7 year old daughter has just asked me this question today about starting her own blog. She sees me writing out my own, taking photos for it and planning projects to do and thinks it would be fun. She wants to do hers about music and ideas for kids and is already busily and excitedly writing down notes for it. I think it’ll be great for her writing skills, keeping her motivated in her interests and hopefully interacting with other kids. I see this as something fun we can do together, especially as she will need a lot of help with the technical side. I do wonder about what exact rules to put in place and whether to edit/spellcheck her work, type her words out for her or let her type it all herself, mistakes and all and let her grow and learn with it at her own pace.
I do agree with previous comments that our kids are growing up in a totally different learning world, and blogging is definitely a big part of that.
Did your daughter end up starting her blog?
My older son has always musically inclined. By 8 years he wanted to create and post his own Piano videos on a YouTube channel and I encouraged it. It got him practising at lease was my contention. Then suddenly at 13 he decided all his videos were very amateurish and deleted everything! Even the piece he played on a one string instrument he built!
My only rule is no posting pictures online. Music maker stuff ok