Al Upton has been blogging for years with his students. Upon attempting to take his student blogging to the next level, he invited the educational blogging community to mentor his students. The idea was for the adult mentor to occasionally visit the student blogs, leaving a positive comment.


In the course of events, however, his blog was "disabled in compliance with DECS wishes (Department of Education and Children’s Services - South Australia)." Further insight from Al includes:

It seems that this blog in particular is being investigated regarding risk and management issues. What procedures should be taken for the use/non-use of blogs to enhance student learning will be considered.

At this point in time, Al and his miniLegends have returned to blogging, having agreed to abide by a prescribed set of publishing guidelines:

There will be no photos or names of students - no identifying information at all.

Until further notice, only Al will add posts or pages to this blog.
Subscribers may add comments. These will all be moderated by Al. As administrator I [Al] reserve the right to not approve comments - there will be no justification.

minilLegend students may only refer to themselves by ‘mini’ followed by a number eg mini17, mini24.

Now for the questions:

• Must precautions be taken when posting student information to blogs (and/or other websites)?
• Is there a set of rules that one could follow that would ensure that proper publishing protocol is followed, independent of the blogger's national, state, district, or school restrictions?
• What are your rules for publishing information related to children that you know?
  

Image Source: the miniLegends 08

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