First off, I would like to say that I thought our Skype Chat with Will Richardson was very helpful. It is always nice to be able to ask questions to someone who has had enough experience to answer them. I think he had some really great ideas and some very interesting things to say about blogging and incorporating blogging into the classroom. Blogs are a great concept to include in your classroom settings. One use for a blog that I plan on using in my own classroom later in life is for journaling. Each day, maybe for homework or even during the classroom time, there will be a topic or a question of the day that the students will be required to answer in their own personal blog. These blogs will be connected together so that students can read each other’s entries and so that I can review them as well. This will not only improve their writing and reading skills, but it will help them connect and learn more about each other. The topics can vary from questions regarding their personal lives outside of school or to questions regarding lessons being taught in the classroom.
Another great idea that was brought up during our discussion with Will Richardson dealt with connecting with other students both around the country and around the world. The Internet is a huge open door and classrooms should always be taking advantage of this. When I was in second grade, each student in my class had a pen pal. We would write letters to other students across the country once a month. The only problem was, we had to wait about a month or so to receive their responses. With the Internet at hand, students can receive responses in minutes instead of weeks.
There is so much information our there that can be used in the classroom ranging everywhere from researching for papers to staying in contact with the outside world. For every lesson that is to be taught in school, there is sure to be an accompanying technological concept that can be taught or utilized as well.
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Hi Samatha,
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in this blog: http://learningismessy.com/blog/. It's about building the contacts that you referenced above.
~Monica
I think that's a great idea- having the students use blogs in place of hard-copy journals. Not only will the teacher be able to monitor, but the other students will as well. This does however, pose a problem of the possibility of cyber bullying, I believe that by having a class blog, a door is opened beyond the four classroom walls
ReplyDeleteI agree that using a blog to connect to students from other countries is a great way to use a blog. I would be very interested on how much a tacher can expand a curriculum by using ideads and lessons from other students in different countries.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, you brought up some really good points about blogging. How would you compare and contrast blogging with students to turning in assignments to the teacher the traditional way?
ReplyDeleteUsing blogging to connect with others internationally is so important. It is not only important to use it for academic purposes, but for our own individual purposes as well. I am not sure if people use blogging as a way for students to use “pen pal-ing” for academic purposes, but if not, that would be really awesome. Writing letters manually will always have its own strong and memorable meaning, but there’s only so much someone can write. It is so easy to just type anything and everything without getting tired and bored. Writing with hand is a different story. After about a page, it gets tiring and your eyes may get blurry from looking at the print. By typing it, you can make it creative. You can use any type of font, any color, and style you so choose. You can add digital photos and you may be able to make conversations deeper and find more similar interests.
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