The miniLegends mentoring program - using blogs in the classroom.

Each young blogger also gets an adult mentor and you can sign up to be a mentor if you want.

I'm signing up! I'll teach these little fuckers how to blog properly.

Noooooooooooooooooooooo!

Thanks Coturnix for spreading the word about our mentoring blogging program. Your links have even connected us up with another blogger who also lives in Adelaide "just around the corner" ... proving what a small world it is. The project has shown signs of good success with the exception of the above comment by PhysioProf. I would appreciate it if this 'blogger' was blocked from your site (he/she has been from ours) and the above comments removed.
Congratulations on your excellent blog. It is wonderful that my students (and visitors) can see value on reading beyond their own experience.
Cheers, Al

PhysioProf is joking, as people tend to do on blogs around here. Don't worry, he will not do it on kids' blogs ;-)

The project has shown signs of good success with the exception of the above comment by PhysioProf. I would appreciate it if this 'blogger' was blocked from your site (he/she has been from ours) and the above comments removed.

That's the spirit! I certainly hope you teach your students that this is what blogging is all about. They should learn that there's nothing more integral to the ethic of blogging than blocking and deleting speech that makes you uncomfortable.

Coturnix your first comment 'Noooooooooooooooooooooo!' is contradicted with your second where you condone PhysioProf's previous comments. I agree with freedom of speech but tire of language used just for shock value. I also strongly support the United Nations Constitution for the Rights of the Child. I do not mean to 'bite' in response to these comments. I do intend to follow up any inaction from you Coturnix.
Anyone - students, parents, anyone could find your site through a Google or similar search using 'minilegends'. Fair enough, the approach might not be to block vistors to your site. But you might like to strongly consider removing any links to ours IE this whole post and references to it.

I do intend to follow up any inaction from you Coturnix.

You raise a very important point here. I trust you will impart to your students the key lesson that competent bloggers threaten other bloggers to try to get their way.

As I said above, we are all adults here. Nobody is going to post filthy comments on the kids' blogs. But surely one can do it here - this is a blog by an adult for adults and the usual bloggy language is acceptable here. The 'Noooooooooooo' comment was joking with PP who is my friend and will not be banned. Trolls are banned, but PP is no troll, we are just having a friendly banter here as we have done many times over the past couple of years.

Kids and teenagers are strongly recommended to keep their blogs safe and clean, including much more drastic moderation methods. But adults will not tell adults how to blog and who to ban.

Analogy - this blog is like my 'home' and we can have a party here and do crazy stuff if we want to and I am the only one who decides what kind of behavior is appropriate or not. A classroom blog is a 'school' where a more strict set of rules of behavior can be and should be in place and enforced.

Thus, I can perfectly well admire what Al is doing AND joke along with PP, being perfectly aware that two spheres (of language, style, etc.) will never meet.

I, too, admire the the principle behind what Al is doing. However, I am concerned that Al's shitty attitude is going to teach his students the wrong lessons about what makes blogging valuable.

Good teachers make their students uncomfortable. Bad teachers churn out obedient slaves of convention.

I exploited this outstanding pedagogical opportuntity at my place:

http://physioprof.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/unclear-on-the-fucking-conce…

Hey I agree with PPs last comment (to a degree of course) and understand the 'banter' aspect of this blog. 'Fair enough, the approach might not be to block vistors to your site.' was a comment I put in (that you seem to have missed) and I didn't mean to come across 'heavy handed'. Please I do still ask for some sort of action .. that action is to remove the links to our blog - you too PP. Leave the rest as is your right. 'being perfectly aware that two spheres (of language, style, etc.) will never meet.'??? Coturnix and PP ... these two worlds HAVE already met! I am unable to open up my class blog to my students tomorrow because of your links. Your post links can be clicked on and could see highly motivated kids respond negatively toward their rightful place in global conversations. PP left a link which contains inappropriate language (for student school/home use) .. I have asked PP to also remove the link. Our blog is at imminent risk of becoming a walled garden with passwords conveying the absolute opposite of what I teach. Leave the words but please .. don't you see that I'm passionately asking? .. please remove the links and tags so I can get on with the job of not churning out 'obedient slaves of convention.'

OK, it is silly as those are incoming links, not outgoing links. I'll place the links in another copy of the post that will be comment-less.

"Our blog is at imminent risk of becoming a walled garden with passwords conveying the absolute opposite of what I teach."

What the fuck is this guy talking about? You can't control who links to you on the Web. What's he gonna do when his blog starts getting porn link spam?

Does he think that when a site links to him it is somehow involuntarily forcing something on his own site? Does he not understand that the reason outside links to his site are appearing somewhere on his site is because he instructed his site to identify and display them?

There are now two identical posts - this one without links and another one with links. Of course he can control exactly what appears on site. Not that my readers would do anything but appreciate the kids' blogging and help them out. This is a friggin' science blog and readers are scientists, students, writers, journalists, editors, publishers...who can use the F-word here but have sense not to do it there. The links are going from here to there not the other way round, so he is, of course, in complete control of where the kids go as he controls the outgoing links. Nobody controls the incoming links to any site whatsoever. And deleting a blog post is the most drastic measure, only to be done in absolutely critical situations - otherwise it is a big No-No of the blogosphere.

Can of worms anyone?

Thanks Coturnix for removing the links and hopefully any tags that might lead here. I agree about removing posts etc but am at a loss what to do next. Because of PPs post linking to our blog, my students are unable to access and view the dashboard of their own class blog .. the language in the post title is on full display and means that the blog, at least controls of it, is now closed down until I can remove the link from view ... any ideas?

Instead of rewarding Al's petulant complaining, I explained to him over at my place how trivially easy it is for him delete any trackback links that appear on his blog. Give a man a fish, yadda yadda yadda.

Thanks Coturnix - in an unusual twist of serendipity your initial linking has provided me with a number of good opportunities to build the diverse nature of blogging and the online world into my teaching.
PP was gracious by offering help at his site. It was something I have been aware of for many years - well four anyway. In turn I was able to point out that I don't control everything at my blogging site. Hopefully due to our interactions there will be one more feature I can.
I spend a lot of time 'teaching people how to fish' using PP's metaphor. 'Give a man a fish' just sounds like a generous act of someone with a kind spirit :)