“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow”
– John Dewy
“Shape of the Day” for my 10 Minutes of Fame on Blogger
- Opening class survey: Who utilizes a classroom blog now? Why? Is a virtual classroom necessary for our practice as teachers and Teacher-Librarians? Why or why not?
- 3-4 minutes: Individually explore any of the following links to my current classroom blogs. Please explore what interests you-layout, links, posts, student comments, videos, etc. While exploring please consider 1.) What are the advantages of blogger? 2.) What are the disadvantages of Blogger? 3.) What changes would you recommend?
- My Virtual Classroom, a.k.a home base
- English 12 Class Blog
- Socials 10 Class Blog
- Humanities Co-op Class Blog
- Family Heritage Webquest & Debate Topics Webquest
- Class Sharing: “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”, Technology and Us, Text and Opinion, Work Experience Reflections, Water Crises Reflections, Book Review
- 5-6 minutes: Large group share. I would also like to share how and why I use Blogger in my classroom, and more importantly, after using it in all classes this year, learning what I don’t like and what changes and practices I envision.
Why I use Blogger in the classroom:
- Promotes transparency, for as Richardson advocates: “Getting into a transparent, digital sharing practice [. . .] extends our teaching far beyond our classrooms” (2012, “Why School?”)
- Student’s ownership and choice in their learning. A proficient edublogger, Tran Nguyen also states that blogs in learning are “highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.”
- a central hub for information, sharing, and connecting as a class, as well as an essential archive of learning. Edublog Insights illuminates that “the archive feature of blogging records ongoing learning. It facilitates reflection and evaluation.” Students can easily find their thoughts, as well as connected resources and ideas, to see how their thinking has changed and why.
How I use Blogger:
- Share materials, news, downloads, links for students’ ownership of their learning: “It’s not what I know, it’s what we know” (2012, Richardson)
- Provide adaptation materials, enrichment and inquiry opportunities. Just as the BC Education Plan has articulated that there are “supports needed to use technology to empower the learning” (2012)
- Communicate with parents, tutors, and absent students
- Facilitate online discussions and collaboration. This is essential, as outlined in the Ministry’s Digital Literacy Competencies: Students need collaborative experiences in digital environments to develop individual learning, collective knowledge and to facilitate the learning of others.
- Critical thinking, personal responses and reflections
- Ongoing skill development in communication, social learning and multiliteracies. For example, “Community Corrections.” See Top 10 Most Unforgivable Spelling Mistakes on Twitter.
- Formative assessment, descriptive feedback, and peer-feedback
- As a space inherently connected with the learning and experiences shared in class, and the portfolio course design utilized throughout.
Hopes for Improvement:
- More consistent system for student contributions to the class blog
- Establish a system of quality peer review/feedback for students’ contributions
- Showcase more of the students’ learning experiences throughout, such as photographs of in-class work, as well as more student creations/projects (with permission)
- Create distinct pages of multimedia resources for the various units or major themes of each course
- Youtube Channel connection. See my colleague’s Youtube channel as a sample
- Reduce unnecessary links. De-clutter.
Blogging Resources For You:
Educational Uses of Blogs Slideshare Presentation
The Benefits of Blogs in Primary Classrooms
Blogging in the Middle School Classrooms Slideshare Presentation
The Goal is to start here…………………………………..but avoid ending up here:
Hi Michelle,
I left you a quick message during your 10 minute presentation…I’m back…
As I mentioned, I was impressed with your blog. I admire the dedication and skill you have put into your work. I might seek your input (personally and from your post) as I try to create a class blog for myself over the next few weeks.
Your presentation made me think about the parents of your/my students. As they are not at school with us all they day, they can only wonder what we’re ‘working on’. (We know students are not always effective reporters about their day at school!) I wonder what kind of feedback you get from parents? I imagine it’s gratitude, I know I would appreciate it as a parent.
I think your school blog demonstrates the potential for connection and communication that technology makes possible. It reduces the unknowns, not just for students but also for interested parents, who don’t attend class with their child. I can imagine stronger partnerships and involvement of parents created by access to this blog!
The idea of increasing transparency resonates with me: fostering networks with our local communities (parents, other schools, etc.) and beyond. Opening up what’s going on at school more to the outside world as a way of enhancing and celebrating our learning.
Now on another note, how long did you spend making your beautiful blog? Really?
Hey Jordan, thanks for the blog feedback. Yep, I definitely find that having the blog allows for transparency, excellent communication, and my big goal, student ownership of their learning (I teach seniors, and want them to be more self-directed, self-regulating).
Honestly, choosing a theme and setting it up took almost no time. Deciding all of the links to include that I thought would be helpful/interesting took hours, but updating it for the class, and haviing students post reflections or thoughts takes no time at all per week. Also, I find that it saves me hours and hours: for students who lose handuots, were absent/on vacation, for parent and tutor resources, and for marking. Instead of me individually giving feedback to all 30 all the time, we use it as a forum for discussion, and peers (should) add feedback to each other, like we’re doing here. Overall, it’s definitely worth the time.
Thank you for bringing world world applications of blogging in secondary school to our learning group. There is much to know about blogging, many different ways to use it, many different ways to get it right, and wrong. I like it best for tracking changes in thinking over time, but it is also very useful for organizing teaching and learning through a quick and easy to set up online space.