Here is the survey I used for podcasting workshop. I normally do it at the start of a workshop because if their skill levels are low they won’t be able to do it online. Its best to do this survey before they come so you could also do a paper based version if concerned. The main aspects I looks for are: 1) have they set up online accounts before ; 2) do they download and install their own programs. If they do both it normally indicates they are tech savvy, and while might not have the skills you are after they will pick up quickly. Those that have neither of these skills need lots of additional support and it needs to be step-by-step; allow lots of time.

@Sue, I really appreciate your practical advice. I have not worked with students or teachers in a computer lab setting before and I admit that I’m more than a little concerned about the technical aspects. 30 minutes to set up a gmail account would certainly take up a big chunk of the session. Your idea of having a post set up already for them to go to and start commenting on first sounds great. Get into the more technical aspects later in day.

I’d also make sure you test everything you plan to do thoroughly on your network. I got caught out badly the other day just trying to set up iGoogle pages. Already knew that gmail was an issue on the network but didn’t expect when we tried to save iGoogle page we would fail due to block by network (since I can run my iGoogle page on the network).

My participants have extremely low skills levels so just setting up gmail account took 30 minutes. Definitely reading blogs is really important but wonder how long it would take to set up Google Reader, subscriptions and start commenting? Perhaps if you started instead by having a post written already asking them what they know about blogs, do they read blogs and what they would like to learn. Or something similar and get them to all write their own comment on the post. So get the conversation and commenting started first this way. Then set up their own blog and get them to write a post in response to your post and some of the comments on the post.

My biggest tip would be to encourage them to comment on people’s blogs, so even if they don’t set their up, at least they are getting a feel for how blogging works. Good luck, Sarah