Initially, when I read that we were going to focus on design considerations, I thought we would just be thinking about the visual elements of the blog (e.g., colour, pictures, and format).  Of course, these are important to the visual appeal of a blog.  However, after searching the Internet, I found that it was simply the process of working together to come up with the components to learn how to design something better (i.e., designing through learning).  After getting into my topic inquiry group to discuss how we were all going to approach our project, I discovered the power of working collaboratively and importance of social interaction.  No wonder teacher-librarians talk so much during gatherings!

Before today, I had pretty much decided to create a blog using Weebly. From the summative presentations, it seemed like the best choice for a school blog.  It seemed easy to use, you could create static and scroll though pages, and students could create their own pages on the blog as well.  However, we started to discuss how we would design our blogs with regards to privacy of student content.  How would we post photos of student work on the blog to share with parents without sharing it with the whole world as well?  What kind of permissions do we need from parents with regards to posting their child’s work on a blog?  Who should we give access to the blog?  Who can comment on the blog?  A few of us who had already begun to sign up for a Weebly account suddenly stopped and began to reflect on the vision for our blog.  Ultimately, we realized that our vision would dictate the kind of privacy settings we would have for our blog.

This whole process allowed me to reflect on why people created blogs.  It is a form of social media.  It is place where people gather to socialize.  The person who creates this place is responsible for keeping it a safe and inclusive environment where others feel comfortable to contribute and interact with each other.  I realized this was an important task if I wanted this blog, like the library, to be the hub of learning in the school.  We started to research the privacy setting available to us on the different blogging platforms.  It turned out that Weebly didn’t allow for password protection of pages unless you purchased a pro subscription.  Wordpress allowed many more security features for free.  As an educator with very little funding, a free service is always an asset.  Furthermore, WordPress has a Canadian site which will help put to ease some staff and parent’s reservations with regards to having students content kept in other countries.  As a whole, I realized the importance of reflecting throughout the process of creation instead of just charging ahead with pure enthusiasm as my guide.