77% of internet users read blogs. Blogs are an efficient way to inform, entertain and engage an audience with ease. Hence, we are going to share with you 5 tips to write an effective academic blog!

Writing and managing a blog may take some effort, but it can prove to be crucial in setting up effective school communication between teachers and parents.

Let us take a look at some tips you can incorporate to write an engaging academic blog to keep parents updated about all the happenings of the academic year.

Adding a blog to your existing website can increase its traffic by a whopping 434%. With educational institutions, however, the goal isn’t simply to draw traffic to their website. It is to keep students and their parents in the loop about the happenings of the school.

Creating an academic blog helps bring transparency to the way a school facilitates the learning of its students. Given below are the five tips you can follow to write a dynamic academic blog to keep students and parents up to date with the academic year:

1. Know your audience base 

Creating authentic content that engages your readers begins by identifying the audience first and foremost. Who will be reading your blog? Who will it be targeted at? Students and their parents. 

The content you create should be meant for them. For example, if you want to create a blog post about the importance of physical activity for students, it should be aimed at encouraging parents to ensure that their children stay active.

2. Ensure it is accessible to the parents

No matter how good your content is, it will only fulfill its purpose when your target audience is able to access it. Ensure that they receive the blog posts with ease. You may send them notifications, messages, or emails with the link to the blog.

You can also share them on social media to extend your reach. Another way to make sure parents see them is to share them in the places which parents frequent, such as community forums and the academic calendar on your website.

3. Provide a navigation path 

To ensure increased and consistent engagement from the parents, educate them on how they can make the most out of blogs. Simple things such as knowing how to search a blog or leave comments can help them authentically engage with you. 

Give clear navigation paths to parents via messages and emails. You may also do this in a face-to-face setting. Encourage them to ask questions in case they get stuck at any step. It helps them become a part of a wider blogging community. 

4. Publish static information on your blog

Add additional pages to your blog that provide stationary information about your blog and school in general. It can act as an anchor for new readers and even older ones in case they wish to look for something particular. 

Create an index of sorts where you explain the goal of the blog and divide content into groups. Add information about how to navigate the blog and how readers can get more involved by way of commenting and sharing. 

5. Offer regular opportunities for involvement 

Offer opportunities for parents to get more involved with your blog. One of the simplest ways to do this is by ending every blog with a question for them to answer in the comments. They may also share their answers on social media.

Another way to do this is by asking for guest posts by parents that may be published, say, once a month. Keen writers may send in their thoughts, making the blog much more engaging for its audience. 

Conclusion 

While many schools host blogs on their websites, they often struggle to maintain them or come up with new content. The target audience for your blog is often the parents of the students.

Focus on creating content that keeps them in the loop about the academic year in an entertaining manner. You can also involve them with the blog more by encouraging them to comment and share the blog posts. 

If you’d like to know more, don’t forget to get in touch! At School Jotter we love chatting about all things education and how to make it fun!

In the digital age, social media has emerged as a significant player in building your school’s marketing strategy.

Establishing a power packed digital presence becomes imperative for any school that wants to reach out to new parents, highlight what’s best about the school and convey the institution’s key values and ethos.

If you’re merely posting pictures at random without a concrete plan of action, you’re yet to fully utilise the power of social media to your advantage.

When most of your time and effort are dedicated to running your school, managing Instagram and Facebook may seem too time-consuming and burdensome.

Still wondering how to begin and make things better?

We’ve listed down five ways in which your school can ace the social media game.

5 social media tips to focus on your school

Social media can do a lot of work for you if you know how to harness its potential the right way. The latest social media tools along with the right content expands your school’s reach without overwhelming you with too many technicalities.

Let us walk you through a few social media tips that’ll help keep the focus on your school.

1. Give your audience something that they love 

There’s enough negativity floating all around. You certainly don’t want to add to it through social media posts. Your school’s page should be an epitome of fun, positivity and learning and the posts should reflect that spirit.

Help your institution develop a unique voice, one that’ll draw people’s attention with its distinct appeal and subtle marketing. Give your audience something that’ll compel them to click on “like”, “love” and “share”. Step up your creativity quotient and come up with fresh, original and witty posts. 

2. Reflect on your brand 

You’ve worked hard to create a brand value for your school. Now is the time to let that brand’s aura and goodwill shine through. Use social media to showcase your school’s key values and its USPs.

This will go a long way in bringing in an audience for your content and building a relationship of trust with them. It’s not just the quality of your posts that makes a difference. What matters most is how you engage with people on social media.

3. Never take it as the only way to reach the public  

While social media is an effective medium to create a wider outreach, it’s not the only way of reaching out to your target audience. Sure, its popularity has skyrocketed in the post-Covid era.

Not everyone is active on social media. In order to achieve success, explore other avenues such as newsletters, emails, publications and many more. 

4. Use unique visuals to captivate your audience 

Let those unique visuals and eye-catching videos highlight the distinctive character of your school. When a post is accompanied by some interesting visual reference, it drives home your point more effectively. Such posts find huge favour with social media algorithms and the public likes them too!

Try video content to generate better engagement and attract attention much quicker than static posts. Get creative with Instagram reels, stories, YouTube shorts – there’s no dearth of options on social media when it comes to content creation. 

5. Utilise as readers for bigger announcements 

You don’t have to reveal every bit of information on your school’s social media handle. Facilitate interactions that are beyond the digital space. You can use social media for teaser announcements for big events. Such posts are informative in nature, notifying your audience about the date, time, venue and purpose of the event but don’t reveal anything else. This heightens the curiosity and encourages people to join.

Conclusion 

Several factors contribute towards carving out a strong social media presence for any school. It may seem like a daunting task but with the right guidance and appropriate tools, there’s nothing much to worry about. After all, social media is inarguably the most potent channel for connecting with your audience and giving your school’s reputation a massive boost.

Today we are sharing some ideas about how social media could be used in the classroom and how it can benefit your classroom and your school.

Connecting, communicating and sharing. Connect and communicate with other classrooms through social media. Connect and share resources with other teachers from your school or from other schools. You can also use hashtags to facilitate guest speaker discussions.

Improving teamwork. Use social media for class discussions. Create a private group for discussing a particular topic or engage in open discussions.

Engagement. Engage with students, parents and communities by posting updates regarding school news and events

Learning. Share online learning resources with students. Add links to useful websites, videos and documents online. Encourage students to share useful learning materials with their peers.

Staying up to date. Require students to post news related or any other trending articles. This activity encourages students to read relevant articles every day.

Sharing. Use social media platforms to share the work of your students. Publish interesting articles, presentations or other projects that your students create.

Increasing awareness of your school. Sharing links to your school website on social media can help increase the search engine rankings which means that your school website attracts more visitors that can lead to more people choosing your school.

To conclude, it is worth looking at different methods of incorporating social media in the classroom. It does not have to become a permanent thing, give it a go and maybe you will discover something that really helps to engage with students. Make sure you always educate your students how to use social media safely.

As discussed previously, integrating technology in the classroom helps to improve engagement, it encourages individual and collaborative learning, provides students with useful life skills as well as it benefits teachers in many ways.

Social media

Most students are already using social media outside the classroom. Embracing social media in the classroom can instantly engage with students and to make learning more fun. For instance, Twitter or Facebook can be used to start a discussion on a particular topic. You can also use social media for making school related announcements, posting reminders about deadlines, uploading pictures or videos.

Blogging

Blogging is a great way to  promote collaborative learning and to encourage open reflection by letting students share their work with others. What is more, blogging helps to develop reading and writing skills. Blog can be used for homework, assignments or for discussing topics of interest.

Podcasts

Podcasts can be very useful for recording lessons or for providing students with additional learning materials. There are many ways that podcasts could be used in the classroom. For example, recording a class discussion, reviewing a book, conducting interviews or broadcasting classroom news.

Video conferencing

Using video conferencing in the classroom creates exciting opportunities. Students can make friends by interacting with other students in different countries or they can learn by participating in virtual seminars with guest lecturers.

Online resources for learning and assignments

Teachers can test students by using online resources or they can make studying more fun by letting students undertake online quizzes to practice different subjects online.

Use videos

Videos can be used for demonstrating practical examples related to subjects taught in the classroom as well as for providing different approaches to subjects. Videos are useful for making learning more fun and engaging and these are the factors that lead to increased knowledge retention.

Games

Consider elements of gamification to improve the way you deliver the teaching content. The main idea behind gamification in the classroom is to increase motivation through engagement by using elements of video games. Some of the ways to gamify your classroom include: gamification of grading, awarding students with badges, using educational games, implementing a rewards system or gamifying homework.

If you want to learn more about different ways of incorporating technology in the classroom, contact the Webanywhere team.

Now that we have worked out the different guises of the tech savvy teacher we are asking ourselves what does Webanywhere do to support that teacher? So the same headings will appear, just as they did in the last blog post, with how we support you.
Your students read your blog
We lead by example here, we have several blogs attracting very different types of audience. We work with different sectors in and outside of education and recognise that their needs are different. So giving you all the same advice is not an option. Blogging is a great way to communicate in a non-invasive way for us and you respond very well to that.
In School Jotter we have created a blog app that allows everyone to write and have their work published on the internet. The blog app is easy to use and what’s more, schools enjoy writing their blogs and receiving comments.

The blogging facility within an open-source LMS is a popular part of many schools VLE. Whether it is a teacher’s blog or a student’s blog it is a great way to keep in touch with students in between tutor group times or lessons.
You instigate your own CPD online
At Webanywhere we enjoy being proactive and it is very much encouraged by the senior management. So we are starting to offer free webinars offering support on using various parts of your school’s VLE or apps in the School Jotter suite. All webinars are recorded and posted online for those who cannot make the webinar live or would like to go over the information again at a later date.
We also hold regular events around the country for e-safety, OFSTED website requirements and how to meet them. We know these are not online but it is another way we can support you with your CPD.
You have made an online PLN
We hope you consider yourselves part of our learning network. You are brilliant at telling us what you think of our products and how we can develop them. We take note of this and we feel this is one reason that our products go from strength to strength.
It was great to see so many customers at BETT this year and get an update of what you are doing and your future plans. Webanywhere has a strong social networking presence and we offer help and advice to all rather than just informing you of our offers and service available.
You share your life with virtual colleagues you have never met
We are lucky and have some very strong relationships with schools and businesses around the country. We definitely share our working lives with you and include all of our customers when breaking good news about the company.
Your weekly schedule involves Twitter chats
Webanywhere does tweet and we do follow and chat with our customers and other interesting organisations using Twitter. But we do prefer a more personal touch, that is why we enjoy talking to our customers directly whether that is a telephone call or an email.
Summer break means ISTE and other conferences
Webanywhere works through the summer, you will be surprised how many teachers take training sessions during the summer break, we are not though as we know how driven you are. We also do large installs and implementations during this quieter period. We are also planning for the new school year just like you. Planning events and offers that will help you to make the most of the technology you are using.
You know the vocabulary
This should possibly read know our products and services, the vocabulary will then follow automatically. Every educational establishment and business is different, they have different requirements and need varying levels of support. Understanding that we know that what we did for one organisation will not necessarily work in another.
You turn to colleagues in other countries in times of need
We do have colleagues and people in our PLN that are in other countries and they are an invaluable source of information. But we also turn to our customers and ask for their help. In March we took some new School Jotter apps to a local event and invited schools to attend. We had headteachers, teachers, teaching assistants and administration staff. We showed them our new apps and listened to them as they fed back. This was an amazing session and the developer we took with us had a good list of quality suggestions to take back to the development team to work on. An update at the end of June included many of those ideas.
You are a digital citizen
Gosh, we hope so. We strive to be role model digital citizens and if ever we let you down please tell us. As we have always done, we stretch beyond with our enthusiasm and willingness to go further. We are still in front of market needs and we go beyond what’s expected to deliver a truly positive experience for our customers.
You are always hungry to learn, try and tinker with new tech
This goes without saying, it is part of who we are.

Teachers are becoming open to the possibilities for social media tools in the classroom. In the hands of the right educators, they can be used to engage in creative ways and inspire discussion among even the softest-spoken students. However popular social networking and content sharing sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are often blocked by schools because its content can’t be moderated – even though they can be a good source of high-quality teaching resources.
Student Jotter is a system for e-portfolios and secure social networking that enables teachers to incorporate safe, secure social media into their lesson plans. Teachers can share their lesson plans, quizzes, videos, podcasts and other resources in a shared library. A community section allows teachers and students to network and collaborate with other members who share the same educational interests.  Class discussions are no longer intimidating for some students to participate in.

Everything is hosted in the cloud for free. Some great tools are included:  An online gradebook, customised quizzes, secure messaging, classroom blogs, the ability to track assessment and a customised profile page.  Student Jotter also enables students to easily share their work projects with classmates.
The interface is easy to navigate and teachers can monitor and edit any of their students’ messages and blogs posts. They can also control how private they want the e-portfolio to be; student-and-teacher only,  allow parents to log in with a password, or make them publically available.
In summary, School Jotter is a better way for teachers and students to organise themselves, and a place to put their work.
Is your school using social media for teaching and learning? What resources do you use? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Interesting article debates whether childrens’ behaviour is being influenced as the line between fact and gossip becomes increasingly blurred thanks to unmoderated social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo.
Link to Telegraph article

The press is increasingly featuring stories that warn of the negative impacts of social media on school age children. Popular public social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are regularly blamed for sinister activities including cyber bullying, stalking and even gang violence.
Many believe, however, that the long-term educational benefits of social media far outweigh the risks. Most schools already use the Internet for teaching, and social media concepts are already essential elements in the lives of most students of Key Stage 2 and above.

Schools are already beginning to incorporate ways of using Facebook-like tools such as discussion forums, photo albums, blogs and secure messaging to develop subject learning through closer collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Safe Social Networking Tools are Available!
What’s required by schools is a means of controlling the perceived risks associated with social media. Banning is one solution. The other – dare we say more productive! – option is for schools to incorporate purpose-built internal social networking software as part of their ICT portfolio.
Webanywhere has developed Student Jotter as a way for students to share their work with peers within their social network, turning academic work into fun. Student Jotter avoids the dangers associated with social media use at school. Teachers can monitor and moderate everything that students post online, and third party influences by advertisers or other sources of inappropriate content are completely eliminated.
Social media used for teaching enables students to comment and critique each other’s work, collaborate in teams, and to securely send messages to each other and their teacher with queries or to start a discussion.
There are undoubted dangers in children using public social networks and schools cannot afford to take these risks lightly. However safe internal solutions are now available that schools can entrust to their students, providing them with familiar cutting edge technology and creating controlled social learning networks within the classroom and at home.
Visit the website of Student Jotter, our innovative system
for e-Portfolios and Secure Social Networking to see how it can benefit schools.