How To
Blogging is a little bit of everything: some people think of it as an online diary, we want you to think of our school blog as a mini-website. Not just any mini-website - the best one in the world.*
Our blog is a like a newspaper, magazine, gallery, classroom, notice board, diary, radio station and newsletter all put in the blender and mixed in to the most delicious online smoothy.**
What you are reading know and looking at is produced by William Brookes students, staff, alumni, parents, carers and members of the local community, so thank you to everyone who has contributed – without you the blog would just be a blank page.
* WARNING: EXTREMELY BIASED
** CONTAINS AMAZING THINGS
If you would like to get involved with the new school blog, pop in to see Mr Bertrand or Mr Crook in the ICT Office, opposite the library. You can get involved in a number of ways: be it writing, podcasting, making videos or animations, taking photographs or sharing your work. If you are interested, come along for a chat and we can discuss the options further.
Commenting
You can also add to the blog by commenting encouragingly on other students work and posts. The option to make a comment is at the bottom of a blog post, you must write in your name and email address, then the comment will be added as soon as it has been checked.
Note that the same rules that apply to computer use for the school, also apply to the blog. If you’re not sure what is appropriate and what is not then follow these guidelines.
- All students, staff and members of the school community are welcome to contribute to the Blog.
- Comment on each other’s work. It is always good to get positive feedback from students, staff, parents and carers.
- Only use your first name when posting comments.
- Use appropriate language.
- Try your best with spelling and grammar.
- Don’t be rude about anyone or anyone’s work.
- Respect other people’s opinions.
- Don’t forget to visit other school’s blogs to see what they’re up to.
Question: What is Podcasting?
Answer: According to the William Brookes School dictionary Podcasting is:
a. A brilliant tool for learning
b. A great way to share information
c. A means to display the variety of talent at our School and Sixth Form College.
If you want to get technical about it: ‘Pod’ is an acronym for Portable On Demand, and ‘cast’ is an abbreviation of Broadcast. So you can see from the origin of the word, that it is a way for students and staff to listen to news, accounts of trips, instructions, plays, singing, musical concerts, assemblies, homework…(we could go on) anywhere anytime, just by clicking play!
If you are interested in doing a podcast, have some exciting ideas or would like to learn more about it, then feel free to see Mr Bertrand in the ICT office anytime.
So when and how can you get started? To show you the types of things you could produce we will give a few suggestions that staff could implement.
Art you could add voice commentary to a gallery or slideshow of students work or the works of famous artists.
Theatre Studies you could showcase auditions and let students vote for who they want to get certain parts in upcoming plays, alternatively it could be used as a taster to advertise school productions.
Music - we could have our very own radio station, broadcast once a week with student bands, vocalists and musicians.
Modern Foreign Languages, why not do practise questions or homework in audio format, which students can also record their replies to as oral exam practise?
History, use those pictures you took on a field trip and add audio commentary so students can go over what they learnt that day. (…once again we could go on)
Just to confuse matters there is also vodcasting. Vod is it? Simple really, vodcasting is like podcasting, but with video as well as audio.
For more information, you can click on this link for the BBC introduction to both podcasting and vodcasting. User-friendly BBC guide
If you have any suggestions or questions please comment below.
