Singapore Blogging Competition

While we in the West continue to block access to blogs at school, and try to find new ways to hold kids back from using the technology, Singapore has recently concluded a national blogging contest with a $3 000 prize for the top blogs produced at school.

The winning class's blogs can be found here.

While this news is a month old and Anne has written about it already, it still struck me as interesting and poignant when I found out about it this morning. We block access and the kids have to learn how to do these things at home. They capture these skills, actively promote them, and try to teach kids proper ways of using the medium.

Make a choice; deny the future is going to happen, or promote it.

technorati tags: blogging, school

Comments

[Susan Sedro]

This all feels a bit surreal because Singapore is such a controlled country. They have enforced laws about everything from jaywalking to chewing gum, and yet they are letting their students blog.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Americans are once again reacting rather than being proactive. [Sigh] Makes we want to head back to S.E. Asia right now!

[Don McLean]

Sitting here in Scotland we have similar problems. There is talk in my area of taking away student school email accounts because of misuse - first backward step - and as a teacher I cannot even view the winning blog as the school's web content security system won't display the pages. How can we move forward while living in the 'nanny state'?