This blog is a great start for a community just learning how to incorporate blogs into the classroom, but it does not meet my criteria for engaging students in life skills. One could argue that these postings support student learning but only at the rudimentary level. This is a day planner or homework board. It is effective in keeping parents, administrators, and other teachers aware of daily topics. However, it does not currently create new opportunities for learners.
This blog is the work of a very committed teacher! I look at this in two ways; first these students truly have access to the tools they will use in their lifetime, and second that I cannot be sure students are actually gaining the ability to critically understand the opportunities this teacher is providing them. This example is much closer to my principles for using technology, but I would be most interested to see how these students develop over the next five years as a result of their first schooling experience seeped in technology. It is hard to say if these initial interactions with six year olds actually support their learning habits, and skill acquisition.
I have realized with the second blog that there are interactions that occur that cannot “be posted” or “show adequate growth” as I might expect to see them. But this, I must reflect, goes back to my traditional understanding of curriculum and assessment that can not apply if I hope to gain insight from the second classroom.
These two examples provided me with evidence that there is no right way to use technology in our current society. Rather I must think critically about what I use to teach so that my students will be prepared for tomorrow. I need to change my mindset in order to properly understand what those opportunities entail. Twitter, for example, at first glance, seems like a social tool with no intrinsic use for subject content. However, I am not thinking as a true scientist. When working with the future, think of what technology CAN be used for to improve society. We, as teachers, cannot use technology as what it was created for; rather we must come up with the ways technology can create classroom lessons.
Blogging is not an effective communication tool for my classroom; however I believe I could use it as a portfolio of work. Another method which I am interested to consider is using blogging as a means of assessment. I do not know how practical it would be to allow students this opportunity, and also properly grade these posts. Access to the internet is a major barrier, as well as finding the time to inject this “online assessment” while still maintaining the traditional regime requested by the administration. Most importantly I believe the best way I can use this method of technology is to keep parents informed, while I have students blog to show their growth.
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I agree that blogging seems to be more f a way to post HW and get info out than to engage kids but you said something that I had not really thought about, how it can be used to communicate with parenst. I teach HS and if I could reach more parenst that would be great!
ReplyDeleteI use my blog to post questions related to job and social situations. It's fun to watch the kids work through "real life" problems while improving their writing skills. I find blogs quite useful.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I like your quote "We, as teachers, cannot use technology as what it was created for; rather we must come up with the ways technology can create classroom lessons." It's so true.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of blogs also depends a lot on the specific group of students you have. For the younger kids, I wonder if you could use individual blogs as some people use Science journals, so they can write about what they learned, maybe a short entry at the end of each week so they can reflect... Maybe in this way you could use it to assess your teaching, instead of their learning (you probably already have other strategies for assessing the students anyway, which are more "traditional", I agree with you that it can be a real challenge making "alternative" ways of assessment fit administrative requirements).
I like Randy's idea too, using blogs to connect with scientists in the "real world" and discuss how to apply science concepts we are learning in everyday situations is also something I have considered for a while.
Hi Kelly,
ReplyDeleteA couple of comments...first, about your statement that "teachers cannot use technology as what it was created for." I understand the need for we as teachers to "justify" our use of technology, but why can't we use it for what it was created for? Blogs were created as a space for reflection and connection with others around a topic. Our students can learn to actively reflect on their coursework, while at the same time making connections with others in similar situations. At least I hope they can, as I'm diving into student blogging this coming school year. Every day we see evidence of the mainstreaming of blogs, from the amateurization of news reporting via blogs/Twitter, to the use of similar tools by the "big guys" (namely CNN's use of iReport). Social networking in general gets a bad rap, but a recent comment at EduBloggerCon made me stop and think: What if we renamed it "social learning" or "academic networking"? Renaming doesn't redefine the tool, but it makes the use of it more clear for stakeholders in education.
Second, the thought of injecting "online assessment" into the regime mandated by administration. Teachers are notorious for cramming more and more into smaller and smaller time frames. Technology can no longer be looked at as an "add-on", it must be embedded in our regular practice. If you are planning to add technology experiences, I recommend you find a way to replace something you are already doing with that experience. Being open with your administration about the goals of your activity and the needs of your students will help quite a bit in moving forward. We've reached a point where we need to stop piling things on for the sake of checking multiple boxes on year end reports. If by using technology, we can take a step forward with our student's thinking, then we need to make every effort to include it. If it's just one more thing to add to our already overfilled plates, then we need to step back and refocus our attention.
I've enjoyed reading your reflections thus far and look forward to learning much more with you as part of my PLN! Thanks for sharing!