RadioWaves, the British podcasting site aimed at school kids, has had a makeover and new features making it easier for children to share their thoughts with others in a safe, moderated environment.

The new “friends function” brings an element of social networking to the site, allowing students to connect and send secure messages to one another, bookmark other pages and access a news feed so they know when friends pages are updated. Not new features for anyone used to blogging and other social networks by any stretch of the imagination, but good to have them added to this more secure, niche educational site. read more

The British government is embracing the world of online communication and wants to ensure that children get a head start in the world of blogging, microblogging and podcasting, amongst other things.

In plans leaked to a UK national newspaper, teachers will have increased freedom to choose what should be taught in their classes.

Traditional skills such as mental arithmetic, spelling and handwriting will still be taught, but children will also learn how to type and use spell checkers. read more

Three-quarters of British teachers believe that blogging and social networking can help their pupils learn about the environment and greener living, according to a recent survey by EDF Energy.

Marking the start of an ambitious project called “Greener Schools”, and tied into the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, the programme aims to reach 2.5 million children by 2012.

Schools can blog about their environmental projects, share images, movies, podcasts, and written work via The Pod. read more

NY Times blog Shifting Careers recently featured a story about a student interning at a blogger’s home office. High school student Sara Jane Berman was on-the-job for a few weeks at the home-office of NY Times columnist (and blogger) Marci Alboher and had described the experience as “different from a conventional internship.”

Instead of the stereotypical “gofer” work, such as photocopying, my job consisted of tasks such as thinking of questions for interviews, proof-reading Marci’s blog posts, and keeping an eye on her dog, Sinatra, during phone interviews.

On my first day I noticed that the line between work and home life was blurred, which may be expected from the author who coined the term “slash” as a type of career. I quickly learned that for working out of a home, versatility was essential. One minute I was answering the phone “Hello, Marci’s office” and next it was time to walk the dog or fix something for lunch.

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Grand Text Auto, a group blog about computer narrative, games, poetry and art, has recently launched an interesting blogging experiment that may take blogging and publishing to the next level. Noah Wardrip-Fruin is putting the manuscript of his upcoming book Expressive Processing, about digital fictions and computer games, online so that the Grand Text Auto community may participate in an open, blog-based peer review. The community is invited to give feedback on the work in the form of comments and/or trackbacks which in its turn may be picked up by the author.

It is the beginning of a more social and networked book.

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I worked on my school newspaper. Didn’t you? Many bloggers got their first taste of joy in writing while working on a newspaper or newsletter at school. Imagine what your education would have been like if your school newspaper was a blog?

James Farmer of Edublogs is bringing blogs to the schools, and his new Edublogs Campus might be the next school newspaper and more.

Edublogs, the popular free blog hosting service for educators and students, now offers a unique package based upon WordPressMU, the WordPress-driven multi-user program that runs WordPress.com, to help teachers and schools set up their own blog hosting service. Edublogs Campus is described as “Your own blog based teaching and learning environment” that allows teachers, school officials, students, and parents to create their own social and educational interactive environment through blogs.
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CollegeScholarships.org has recently announced its 2007 Blogging Scholarship competiton where one exceptional student blogger will be chosen for a $10,000 award. Any eligible college student with a personal or professional blog may participate. You may also nominate fellow students who blog.

Scholarship Requirements:

• Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about you and/or things you are passionate about. No spam bloggers please!!!
• U.S. citizen;
• Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education; and
• If you win, you must be willing to allow us to list your name and blog on this page. We want to be able to say we knew you before you became a well educated, rich, and famous blogging legend.

Important Dates:

• Submission Deadline: Midnight PST on Oct. 6th
• 10 Finalists Announced and Public Voting Begings: 9am EST on Oct. 8th
• Public Voting Ends and Winner Declared: Midnight PST on Oct. 28th

The winners will then be selected from among ten finalists by public voting. CollegeScholarships.org will announce the winners on the Blogworld & New Media Expo in November.

[Via eMediaWire]

Staff at Wabash College, Indiana, have for the second year appointed three freshmen to blog honestly and openly about their first year experiences at the college.

Though the college already has a number of established blogs, last year saw the first written by students just starting at the college. Staff decided not to edit or censor them, though they vetted those who wanted to write first, not only to get a range of backgrounds and interests, but also to ensure that “they’d want their mother to read it”.

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Becoming an expert Blogger and ridding a bike have many similarities that extend far beyond the initial learning experience. As with riding a bike, Blogging takes time to master and since bikes are considered a form of transportation you can ride many places just as you can target your Blog to many people. See the similarities?

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Pupils at a primary school in the county of East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, are adopting blogging as a way of improving how they learn, and as a way of communicating with other schools around the United Kingdom and Europe.

They are involved in blogging, and creating podcasts, including recording themselves speaking French. It aids their learning as they are able to download their own audio files at home to listen again to their work.

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