In session 2 we staretd by discussing what a ‘blogroll’ could be and boys were shown how to add links to their blog page on classroom21 (not called a ‘blogroll’ in classroom21 but acts as the same thing).
Once again we talked about cyber safety and not giving out critical personal information. Boys were shown how they could change their password (when I signed them all up to classroom21 I used a default password) and a few other account preferences.
The main task was to watch the video ‘Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams’.
We watched about the first ten minutes (skipping a bit here and there) and boys were encouraged to watch the whole video in their own time, and we discussed the theme of childhood dreams.
The boys were then introduced to the website 43things and signed up using their school email address and just their first names. They were encouraged to start making a list of some short, medium or lifelong goals and having a look at people who shared their goals and what other goals they had. They also needed to add a link to their blog page for their 43things page. Tom’s 43things (via blogpage), Francesca’s 43things, Clare’s 43things and Bill’s 43things.
Finally, we talked about the fun of having someone leave a comment on your blog and that the purpose for this was to create a discussion. Homework was to leave a comment on 3 other boys’ blogs. At this stage the comments were set to be moderated so that any offensive, silly or totally off topic comments would be deleted. The boys were aware of this and responded in the main, appropriately. They were also encouraged to write posts not related to the tasks I set, but keeping in mind that anyone has access to read their blog.
