The use of Weblogs is increasing in schools as the technology becomes more available in education. I found the information regarding the use of Weblogs as a tool to highlight and share best practices interesting. Related to this is the idea of using the weblog as a building block for school web pages. If you click on the title of this Chapter 2 unit you can link to our school website to see what teachers have websites listed. It is a surprise to me, knowing that several teachers use weblogs, that more teachers have not asked to put their weblog on the school website.
Anyone that would like assistance before next weeks discussion group or would like to schedule a time in the near future to have assistance creating a blog please email me. I would be happy to assist any way I can. If you would simply like to have a site you created linked to the website then email Dan Kane or myself and we will post the information.
I would urge everyone to visit as many of the sites listed in Chapter 2 for some ideas.
Friday, October 31, 2008
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11 comments:
I feel like a complete idiot! I’ve been using blogs more than I thought. I think many of us have been. If you’ve done a graduate course online, YOU HAVE! My final courses for my Masters Degree were all online courses. On the site, the teacher had the syllabus, links to academic search engines, posted magazine articles for review, and posted weekly questions on the assigned reading. We could respond to her post, but mostly to each other’s responses and ideas. Since none of us met in a classroom, our research projects were carried out by way of “I do my part. I post my part. You comment on my part. I revise my part.” When all of us had OK’d each other’s part, one would act as the “leader” and put everything together. In my eyes, this set up is a combination of a “Class Portal” (21) and “Collaborative Space” (23). I would love to run a site like this for my class. It would definitely enhance what is going on. It would also engage students in the collaboration and communication process.
As an English teacher, it is often difficult and frustrating to get students to react immediately to a passage of literature. Obviously, we don’t have all day to get a sentence of feeling out of each kid, especially for those students who take a bit longer to digest the information. On page 27, Richardson mentions “for those students who might be more reticent in class, a blog gives them the opportunity to share in writing the ideas they may be too shy to speak.”
-Devil’s Advocate!!!- Some may say that by giving the students the “free pass” in class may be hindering their ability to learn how to communicate in the real world. Or, is blogging helping those get familiarized to the idea and pushing them to be better face-to-face communicators? Some may say the real world IS the online environment. What do you all think of this?
I’m truly in the middle here. I know we aren’t going full force into the digital classroom, and that this is to enhance, but I do still want my kids to be able to “think on their feet” and share meaningful ideas. If it’s only online that this can be done, I’m for it, but we just can’t go so far into it that we lose ourselves in the technology.
well I know that I have a blog site but I do not want to put it on the school website due to the fact that I am not sure what I want to do with it. I might want to start up a wikki instead. I have checked out some if not all of the sites in this capter the last time I went through the class. I think it is a great idea for class but I am not sure how I want to use it or if I want to put it out for the whole school to look at.
Having read the chapter and veiw the blogs Dan sent I could see how a blog woudl be an asset to teaching. Not only are we engaging the students on their terms, but providing a space to assist them while not at school. Mr. Kuropatwa's site is an excellent example of how this tool can be used. I have to believe if a student is able to get the help they need and stave off the frustration often felt while attempting the homework greater progress would be made. I believe more often than not the students are initially willing to do the work, but once a challenge presents itself they shut down. Yet if help was avaliable they could push through the doubt and gain some self assurance and confidence to continue on.
I enjoyed reading about all the blogs that have been used in education... I especially liked the one Dr. Bertrand sent us; the "Guerilla Season Book Blog." In the video, the teacher explained how it worked, and how they were able to connect with students from schools on the other side of the country in their discussions. Very exciting!
There were also a lot of other ideas for classroom uses of blogs near the end of the chapter; I can see blogs being very useful in many ways! Using blogs as resources was a good idea, too, and I was glad to see a warning that the blog should be evaluated before using it as a factual source... checking out who is writing the blog is important if you want to avoid biased information.
"Mourning old media's decline" Reminds me of some graffiti I saw on a college professor's door over 30 years ago - " Marshall Macluen has pronounced the written word obsolete and has written six books to prove it. Richardson says that he reacts with a certain pleasure to opening a newspaper in a way that he is unable to with an electronic page. Pbwiki has sent me four emails with consecutive steps for things to try with a wiki. I can't toggle back and forth between messages and scroll down through text and soak in the entirety of the message. If I print them out, I can see how everything fits in context.
Richardson discusses the use of weblogs as a collaborative space and its potential for students to share ideas and interact with one another. Many of our students do that now. They update their Myspace and Facebook pages hourly and are engaged with all of their friends.
There are possibilities for us, as educators, online but we need to engage and excite our audiences. How do we approach and create an educational blog but generate the same buzz of a Myspace or Facebook?
Chapter 2 describes the positive uses of weblogs in school. I think the idea of an E-Portfolio for each student who attends MCHS is a brilliant idea. Is there any way that when the students register as freshman that we could set them up with their own weblog? How difficult would that be to manage?
I would like to creat a blog for my classroom but I am not sure what I will use it for yet. I would really like to have a discussion going but I am not sure what type of math question to post up for the class. I read ahead and in chapter 3 Richardson said that a blog is not just students posting work. I had originally thought about students posting their stories they wrote in math but I don't know if this is a good blog activity. I have looked at about 25 math blogs but I am undecided about how to utilize it in my classroom. Any thoughts?
When reading the chapter I found a section about using a blog as a portfolio for students work throughout all of their high school careers, and also using them as a way for colleges to view their work and get a sense of the student. I think this would also be a great thing for special education students. It would be more for those students who are on an alternative assessment, then this way everything would be right there and you could see the progress that they have made in their 4 years of high school. I also feel that it would be a great way for students to reflect on all their work, and also get the opinions of other students and professionals. The only concern I would have is the possibility that people would steal other students work.
I see the potential for blogs, but I haven't personally used one. I've never even taken an on-line class. I'm not sure what I would even have my students write about. I'm very knew to this technology-I still don't know how to cut and paste on a computer-I still do it the old fashion way. Is there hope for me? Jay
Jay, I taught a class about a year ago and the most "technology challenged" student I had did not know how to turn on the computer. After meeting for several weeks she was using the Microsoft Office products in class and working with students on becoming more comfortable with it. She made a few Power Point presentations and used them in class. After this she reported back that the attention of her students changed overnight. I believe the difference in her students was less due to the technology but more because instruction was different in this teachers room. Sometimes mixing things up helps students focus on the "Whats next?" By the end of the course the teacher that had very little experience using the computer was doing searches for information other teachers had posted and using this information to enrich her classroom activities.
Is there hope for you? I believe there is plenty of hope. The key to learning about technology is the willingness to make mistakes and try things repeatedly. Practice, Practice, and have fun!
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