Hornby High School Photography 2014

Hi there! The expectation if you are doing photography at Hornby High School this year, is that you set up your own blog. This will pretty much replace your work book. Last year, the NZQA moderators were more than happy to assess our book work online through the students blogs. This will save you a lot of time and means that communicating and feedback will be much easier. The first week of school, once we have the moodle stuff sorted, will be getting yourselves online with a blog too.

There are things you will need to think carefully about with your blog. What you post will be there forever.

Commitment, Achievement, Resilience, Respect

The School Values apply to how you express yourselves digitally also. You need to care about being good digital citizens. Every post you make, on ALL forms of digital media is traceable (includes facebook). It will reflect on you in time to come. It is NOT like the spoken word that, unrecorded could be forgotten. Your digital shadow is something that can linger for a long time.

Commitment: Be learning ready online too, prepared, positive and to the point.

It is your responsibility to act positively. In doing that, you will encourage others to do the same.

- Consider the intention of your comments that are digitally created. They should be always thought through before you make them. What is your point? Is it learning focused, productive, meaningful? Are you going to make your life better? The lives of others better? You are now responsible for the health and well-being of others, when you include them in posts and comments. How much of this responsibility do you want to hold, if you are not being positive?

Achievement Be the best that you can be online too.

- Aiming high with your intentions and outcomes online is just as important as anywhere else in your life. Except that online, there is a permanent memory of your intentions and outcomes. Again you become responsible for the health and well-being of others through online comments. You want to have a digital legacy that shows the world what a great person you are.

Resilience - have the confidence to try; connect with others on a similar journey.

- Putting yourself out there digitally IS scary and it is open to the world. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a go. 95% of what is online is uploaded by everyday people, who are not attached to a corporation of any kind. A lot is misinformation. If you are using these tools appropriately, you are expressing your own learning journey and potentially inspiring others to do the same. Educate yourself and connect with others doing the same things.

Respect – people, places, property, beliefs, access, welfare, security

- Other people’s websites are their PROPERTY. They may not have a physical nature, but you cannot rip them off. Other people will express views online that you may not agree with. It is not your place as a student to begin a full-scale online war with that person that becomes personal. Move on. Take care with your security settings and ensure they are appropriate. It is not a fun game to deliberately set about seeing if you can deceive and undermine the security of others online. All you are doing is undermining your own core values of being a good person. It is a serious legal breach to do this and can be followed up on.