One of the main conclusions in the new Stagis report “Hvorfor efterskole – og hvorfor ikke?” is that the main condition for choosing the continuation school life is that you know what this kind of life is all about. What’s it like to live far away from your parents? What activities is offered? And what’s the food like? This kind of knowledge is difficult to pass on through masscommunication channels like brochures, standard websites etc. This will not make young people feel the unique atmosphere of the school or smell the room that belongs to two teenage boys. 
Far from all young people have a family member or a close friend that has been to a continuation school, but it’s possible to get ALMOST the same experience through other kinds of communication channels. It’s all about creating a space for relations between continuation school students and potential students. A weblog is an obvious example. Here present students can write about all aspects of the everyday life, and potential students can get an authentic impression of the school in question. What better way to tell about the school than through the present students?
To pick up on the headline on this post, I think that both masscommunication channels and interpersonal communication channels have their advantages and limitations. Mass communication channels are suitable for general messages that needs to get through to a big audience, but when it comes to influence or change opinions about something, interpersonal communication channels are much more effective. Blogging is not what is normally associated with interpersonal communication, but the idea is to get as close to the face-to-face communication as possible. And I think this can be considered pretty close. Close enough to make a more qualified choise of whether or not to go to a continuation school.
