It's really an exciting idea to use blogs in our daily teaching, and I cannot wait to try it in my own classroom. Here are some of the ways I think I can try later after reading the books.
Firstly, we can use the blogs as online filing cabinet. The students can post their work online for peer and teacher response. They can archive their work online, and this creates a space for an online portfolio of work. And they can refer back to it anytime they want. It is really cool because the students can trace back the way they made improvement and grew up by revisiting their blogs. And it should give them a sense of fulfillment. At the same time, it is easier for the instructor to give in-time suggestions or grade to the students. Or in other words, the students and the teachers can interact with each other better.
We can also use blogs to create spaces where students can collaborate with others online. Students can use the blogs to share information with their peers, teachers, or even some other person like a author, etc. In this way we can coorperatively accomplish a task or share the information with each other without seeing each other. It is good because in some situation it is really difficult to find a time available to everyone to have a face-to-face meeting.
I also think using blogs in classroom is a non-stop trend of moving curriculum to a digital, online environment. As teachers, we can post course curriculum, syllabus, class rules, homewok assignments, rubrics, handouts, and presentations on the blog for the convinience of both instructors and students. In this way, the students can always be clear about what they need to do for the course. Thus, it is less possible for them to miss the important things of class.
8 comments:
Sammi,
I especially like your point that "the students can trace back the way they made improvement and grew up by revisiting their blogs" I think they often are not aware of their own progress.
I also agree with you that a lot of teaching and learning is moving online. There are some teachers who have decided to "teach paperless." That would be interesting to observe.
Hi Yiren,
I like how you incorporated some ideas from our textbook and made them your own. I agree that the online filing cabinet idea would be a huge help. Students who save their work to their district h-space can't access their work from home - this would be a great place for them to save their work especially if they are working on something as a group. Students could all collaborate ideas and work on a document at the same time.
I also agree that posting course work and course expectations would help alleviate any uncertainty about when assignments are due or when any upcoming tests or quizzes are. Now that students are so technology savvy this might be a creative way to post their homework or assignments and get some of the really quiet kids involved!
Great ideas!
Have a good week!
Elisabeth
Your ideas about using blogs in teaching are really helpful. I value the cooperation work by introducing group blogs to the students. Thanks for sharing!
Hello,
I like agree with you about using a blog as a way to organize classroom assignments, syllabus, and have greater communication with the students about assignments and stuff outside of the class. The text really emphasized using blogs for the whole school and individual classes in a public or private way.
"In this way [students] can coorperatively accomplish a task or share the information with each other without seeing each other." Sounds exactly like what we are doing now in this class! I think blogging is a terrific way to introduce high school students to the practice of distance learning, which is an option many of them will probably want to explore at the university level. The internet is clearly revolutionizing education, and blogs are an easy way to incorporate collaborative digital pedagogy in the high school curriculum.
I like your post, especially your idea on “they can refer back to it anytime they want.” I feel this is probably the most over looked aspect in blogging yet at the same time the most valuable. Not only will allow the students to track their improvements it allows them to go back at any time and get a refresher on what they have done. I can’t count the number of times I wished I had a record of the things I have done or even previous syllabus I received which I later found a use for.
Hello-
I like your idea about collaborating..I think it's important to collaborate with other studentS these days and students also like it. Thanks!!
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