[TIPS] what blogging ISN'T

Those who know me would have been proud of how well i contained myself today as someone asked about word press and how well it works on their network. They want to use it to give their teachers and students blogs. Wonderful, yes?

Well, except that they want this to be behind a passworded portal so that nobody can read the blogs unless they know the password. There will be NO outside access without the key to the lock.

This is like saying that we're going to start using hammers in the name of teaching construction and then just allowing the kids to hammer nails into a board that is attached to nothing. Or, as I said in an earlier analogy, it's like putting the kids in a race car and letting them drive around in the parking lot and calling it racing.

I would MUCH rather they not do ANYTHING, then to do this. It's obvious that they've missed the point. They don't get it. They will end up using these "blogs" in exactly the wrong way ("Tonight I want you to write a blog post of between 300-500 words....") and then they'll turn around and blame the tool when the kids rightfully HATE it.

At the same time I heard several others say that they aren't going to tell their teachers that it's now possible to open up sites for teachers and not kids, because then they'll want youtube open. One complained that the teachers are now downloading them at home and wanting to being them in on jump drives - and that's not allowed!

HELP!!!