CampusPress and Global2
Since 2006, Global2 has been serving teachers and students in all Government and Catholic schools in Victoria, Australia. Global2 is one of our largest and longest running networks.
The blog community has grown to over 85,000 registered users and is enhancing teaching and learning in a variety of ways around the state.
The size of this network places it as one of the largest examples of a WordPress Multisite network in the world!
Direct Teacher Support
The CampusPress team provides help and support directly to teachers from within the Global2 platform.
Teachers visit a link in their dashboard to send an inquiry to our team of former educators. The average response time is less than one hour!
Self-Service Model
Any teacher, staff, or student with a school sponsored email address can self-signup directly from the Global2 home page.
This process makes it easy to get started and means there is no need for uploads of student information via spreadsheets or for teachers to manually create student accounts one-by-one.
“Since 2008, Global2 has been an ideal platform for my own professional educator blog. Global2 has also been the perfect choice for my class blog, student digital portfolios, and global collaborative projects.”
~ Kathleen Morris, Victorian Teacher and Edublogs Community Manager
Example Global2 Blogs
Because all students and teachers across the state have access to the same platform, Global2 has become the tool of choice for learning projects of all shapes and sizes.
Schools can also invite international partners into the Global2 network to help facilitate global connections.
In short, the Global2 platform is the front door to communication, showcasing learning, and facilitating student collaboration.
The following outlines just a handful of examples of Global2 sites.
Class Blog With Student Blogs
Creating a class blog with Global2 has always been a popular choice for Victorian educators.
Teachers also have the option of adding student blogs for certain individuals, or their whole class or school.
Student blog management is made easy on Global2 with the My Class feature. Teachers can elect to moderate posts and/or comments with one click.
One example is Ant’s Class where the grade 5/6 teacher posts student learning tasks on the class blog along with learning goals, links to resources, reflection questions and so on. Students blogs are listed on the sidebar which the children use as a digital portfolio for certain tasks.
Some teachers prefer to use a class blog as a standalone space like 5/6 Blog @ Beacy PS where there are reminders and reflections on classroom events and learning.
Student Led School Blog
Some Victorian schools have set up a school blog as a dynamic space that complements a more static school website. A school blog can be run by staff, students, or a mixture of both.
St. Charles Borromeo has a fantastic school blog which is unique in many respects.
The overall management of the blog has shifted from initally teachers to an elected ‘Student Action Team’. Students from year 1-6 are regular contributors.
School ICT Leader, Frank Cotela, has found an enormous amount of learning stems from the blogging program.
Our blog is an important tool for our students to collaborate, contribute, connect, create, communicate and critique (6 Cs). But, there’s an equal amount of mathematical, entrepreneurial, interpersonal learning behind the scenes with managing the blog.
Check out some of St. Charles Borromeo’s terrific ‘Blog Shows’ like Around the Yard and Book of the Week.
The blog also showcases a library of student created eBooks and online games.
Technology And School Communication
Berwick Lodge Primary School has become well known across the state for their innovative approach to technology and home-school communication.
Teacher, Rob Kelly, uses a Global2 blog called Learning with Digital Technology to showcase a number of initiatives such as a school television show, podcast, e-magazine, radio show, coding, robotics, 3D printing and more.
A Global2 blog is the perfect home for all their multimedia creations including their impressive LODGERS television series.
Berwick Lodge Primary School has also embraced the use of blogs across all year levels and subject areas. A page on their school website provides a hub for the links to all their Global2 sites.
Supporting Students’ Literacy
St Albans East Reading Recovery is a blog written by literacy support teacher, Dianne Fielding.
It is designed to provide literacy information to educators and tips for reading and writing at home for families.
The comprehensive site is full of useful links and resources. It demonstrates how sharing with educators and parents can happen beyond the confines of an individual school. This blog has proved helpful to many people across the state and the world.
TEAL
The TEAL project, hosted on Global2, is an online resource for teachers of primary and secondary level students who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL).
It brings together a range of tools and advice regarding assessment and reporting.
There are professional learning readings, assessment tools, annotated units of work, and discussion forums to turn the site into an interactive space.
This resource is something that’s being built on over time and can be of assistance to those beyond the Victorian education community.
The Education State
Victoria is known as ‘The Education State’, and for good reason.
As an early adopter, the State of Victoria has become a world leader with online publishing for educators, students, schools, and communities. Their Global2 CampusPress network has allowed for endless possibilties!