Chrissie's Muses

First thing’s first; Happy New Year Everyone! Now, where do I start a new year of Blogging… Well, I suppose talking about the year to come would be a start.

For me I think 2012 will be a year focussed on communicating effectively and in imaginative ways. The first project I’m involved in is going to be our new school blog site which will hopefully be launched this term. I’ve been extremely impressed with all the established school blog sites which I’ve learnt about via Twitter (a lot of which are hosted by Creative Blogs) and how they are increasing pupil’s language and communication skills as well as boosting their confidence and motivation.

Our project could be massive with the potential of getting most pupils involved from all areas of the school. I can’t wait to get it going and I’m sure I will continue to learn so much more about our school in the process. I will probably be involved in at least partially writing at least two blogs on the site: the library blog and the e-Learning blog.

I also want us to get involved in @deputymitchell‘s quadblogging initiative, but first thing’s first…

Alongside the blog project, I intend to further develop our SharePoint site as the school intranet. I’ve re-styled the library site over Christmas so it now looks so much better and created a new staff only e-Learning site. I intend for SharePoint to provide information and resources intended solely for members of the school, which will help to distinguish between private and public information. The blog and the SharePoint intranet sites should give us a good framework with which to communicate with all stakeholders.

Lastly (but not at all least) will come the need to review and develop our school Virtual Learning Environment. At present we have two: neither of which are seemingly embedded across all areas of the school. Recent conferences and discussions have made me start to consider what a 2012 version of a school virtual learning environment actually is. I’m no longer convinced it is a single source of information, resources and activities as it was back in the days of Becta’s recommended VLEs, but am now starting to wonder whether the 2012 VLE is a cumulation of everything that’s out there on the internet delivered to pupils through either a front-end website or apps on a tablet.

So, yet more blogging, tweeting, web development and project planning coming up for me in 2012. I can’t wait!