Adventures in After School Learning Blog

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Here are a couple winning video submissions from the Reel Teens USA student film festival. Enjoy!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Blogging has really exploded over the last couple years with a number of specific tools for educators that are both easy to use and free.

I’ve been following the development of Edublogs for some time now and see this as a very unique offering for school blogs. The simplicity of blogs really lends itself to after school programs, making it easy for site leaders to deliver frequent updates and news directly to their community.

The Edublog team focuses solely on educational content, so the likelihood of your hosted blog being blocked on a school network is lower. And because it's targeted to educators they've built a large number of step-by-step tutorials related to teaching that make getting started close to painless.

Their “Curriculum Corner” offers a wealth of resources from getting started tips to advice on setting guidelines for students. Take a look at this fun video "10 Great Ways to Use your Edublog" to get ideas on how to put this technology to use with your program.

Now wouldn't this make a great project for your older students? Assign a small group of students the job of posting articles, interviews and events to your blog. This way they gain valuable work experience and you get to broadcast all the great things happening in your program...that sounds like a true win-win!
 
I’d be interested in what you think of blogging in and for after school programs, please leave your comment below!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, January 26, 2011

As the after school initiative matures so does the average age of children served, so high school After School is the new frontier and where many program leaders find themselves today.  But programming that worked for younger kids won’t always translate to the high school level.

When looking around at what interests high school kids today you see social media taking up a big chunk of their mindshare and time. 

Tap that Energy

So how do you harness the power of all this media and technology into a worthwhile activity that will supplant what high school kids currently do after school?  Well the one forum or media that reinforces writing and communication skills is the one you’re reading – a blog.  High school kids have a lot to say…so why not start a blogging club for your high school after school students?

Specialized Services

Blogs give kids a voice and a central space to house their videos, pictures, art work or voice opinions about issues that concern them.  They’re a number of free services available, but one service worth looking at for instructional purposes is EduBlogs. 

Edublogs is free and designed for educators.  It was created on top of the easy to use Word Press blogging platform, with built in tools to help you manage a classroom full of blogs. In addition, it includes a series of tutorials with step-by-step instructions on everything from setting up an account to creating your first post.

The Win-Win

Now for the big payoff...why not form an editorial team of high school students to create and manage a blog about your after school program!  This would be cheaper and easier than building a web site and would allow you to add articles or updates weekly.  There could be features about interesting activities, science programs, upcoming events and special guests.     

Your high school students will be engaged when you empower them to own the project.  They’ll learn valuable skills by writing articles, working as a team, gaining hands-on experience with the platform, incorporating photography and video perhaps and reaching out to community members. 

Best of all they’ll have a whole lot of fun!