Change My World

I am passionate about learning.

My love affair with ICT is because I truly believe it really does enhance learning and allows students different learning styles to experience success, which hopefully will lead on to higher self esteem, empowerment and a love for learning knowing that they will succeed.

I have been thinking about how this relates to student blogs and blogging in the classroom. For some time now I have been looking for examples of blogging in the classroom, especially looking for those with real and full evidence of classroom learning. As I read student and class blogs and I have to say that in many cases I have difficulty identifying the learning involved. I always ask myself what is the learning here, and often I am stumped.

I believe class blogs should have real purpose and that the owner of the blog (usually the teacher) is quite clear as to the purpose. I can really only think of 2 purposes - 1. to celebrate learning and 2. to show process, progress and achievement of learning.

It is easy to find blogs in the first group - to celebrate learning. These are the blogs serve the purpose of a digital newsletter to that show what has been happening in the school or classroom during a particular period.

However, to find blogs that show process, progress and achievement of learning is a little more difficult. An adult is able to make links between posts and to develop an issue across several posts. I'm not saying that a child cannot do this, but in many cases the blogs deteriorate as the child is unable to focus on the clear purpose of the blog.

In order to help students focus on the learning, the blog should have a clear and defined purpose and once this purpose is no longer needed (the unit of work is finished, the learning has moved on to a different area) then the blog should also finish. An example would be a student who was investigating a topic for science fair or conducting a novel study. The blog will show the process of the investigation, the progress of the learner and the outcomes of the learning, but when that investigation finishes and reflection is complete then the blog sits idle.

It's all about purpose for writing - a very important deliberate act of teaching.

Great video by Jackie Halaw
3 steps for 21st century learning
Step 1 - teach creativity
Step 2 - teach skills of competition and co-operation
Step 3 - introduce collaboration with global peers
- it all sounds easy enough

• I hope that this inspires other grown ups and kids to make a difference in their communities too, by doing little things. For this reason, I am challenging everyone who reads this blog to TRY to do something every single day during the holiday season to make a difference in his or her world. Even if you can’t do something every day, you can do one small thing to help make your world a better place.

All power to you Laura.

We are lucky in the teaching profession as we all have these moments from time to time.
Recently, I was facilitating a session on digital photography in one of my schools. After the session I had a visit from a little 5 year old girl, carrying this big poster that she had made.


Translation of text (spelling is mine):
'Today we went to Room Seven. The teacher was called Mrs Shearing. We are learning digital camera. We first put on the rope and then we press the power button and the digital camera is on and we take our picture and then if I want to look at my picture press this arrow.'

So cute!

Just take a look at some of the photos that were taken by these 5 and 6 year olds. They are stunning.

I have been reading Marc Prensky's blog and his post on the NSBA Study On Online Behaviors caught my eye. This study discusses how teenagers use such sites as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook and if these sites have any place in education.

In this study, Anne Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association (USA) states,
“There is no doubt that these online teen hangouts are having a huge influence on how kids today are creatively thinking and behaving. The challenge for school boards and educators is that they have to keep pace with how students are using these tools in positive ways and consider how they might incorporate this technology into the school setting.”

In the study Peter Grunwald of Grunwald Associates says that
"In the future, schools that incorporate social networking tools in education can help engage kids and move them toward the center of the learning process.”

The study points out that much of the social networking is centred around school, schoolwork or assignments.
So it is okay for kids to network to complete and discuss assignment out of school hours, but not in school hours???? It doesn't gel with me.

I find this very interesting as I was speaking to a New Zealand educator only yesterday who stated that there is a concern that our kids want it all and want it now, and we should resist this. Why? Surely here is an opportunity for us to model excellence in learning which includes excitement, engagement and relevance.

I agree with Marc when he states that many of our educators are
"deathly afraid of ...“The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native” because it is something they don’t understand. Rather than asking the kids about it (say in regular meetings) their typical attitude it to disrespect it and the kids."

I read with interest Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's article on Building and Sustaining a Learning Community.
It is discussed here that purpose and common interest are perhaps the two essential ingredients to building a learning community and I am discovering that the principles applied here also relate to the use of Web2.0 in the classroom. The interest in, and the use of the tools (blogs, wikis and podcasts) must be sustainable. As I work with middle school students, I have found the best way to do this is to ensure that each wiki, blog or podcast has an authentic theme or purpose and once that is exhausted, then the blog or wiki is complete and doesn't need to be added to unless something else crops up.
Wikis are very exciting, and we are experimenting with some different ones at the moment but all have clear purposes. These wikis have been especially set up to address a need and will exist for as long as the need is there, and their use is essential to the learning of the users.
One group of students are working on collaborative stories.
They work from home or anywhere, meeting only at school to discuss twists and turns in the plot. They are totally motivated for the course of the story, but once it is finished the wiki will lie dormant (although read by others, so perhaps not so dormant).
Several class groups are working on an inquiry into human rights and community rights.
This one is completed at school in a collaborative environment using the inquiry approach.
Last term we used literature circles blogs as part of a novel study. These blogs were so successful that many classes want to try it for themselves. A couple currently underway is a literature circle on Goodnight Mister Tom and a novel study on Boy Overboard.

I have been investigating the learning behind the blogging experience, and using blogging to support learning. In the course of this study, I have been trying to find excellent examples of student blogs, especially with younger students. Many examples I found were really chat sessions and often not containing very good examples of excellence in English.
We decided to try our hand at creating our own, and came up with the idea of blogs to support our reading programme.
The students are working in Literature Circles and these are published to a blog for a real worldwide audience. Much excitement buzzes around the classroom whenever anyone receives a comment and the clustr map is eagerly checked every morning.
The children do publish all the blogs to a secure site first, and then the teacher loads them onto a blogspot site. (We are still a little nervous about privacy and net safety).
If you are interested take a look at our current blog listed below - and many more to come soon.
I would love your feedback, and thanks to all those who have given feedback - you have really made a child's day!!!

The Diary Of Anne Frank

After this positive experience with this group of students, I was thrilled to discover that some had taken on blogging into other realms of their learning.
Just take a look at Cheyenne's Science Fair blog. Here is a young lady of 11 years old who is recording her progress and process of her science fair investigation in a blog. She has done this completely on her own, at home, without the assistance of (but of course with great encouragement from) her teacher.
Please take the time to leave her some feedback.

Now the challenge is to find blogging ways to support learning in other areas.
I would love to hear your ideas.

For some time now I have been looking at how blogging can support and enhance learning.

I have started a blog for a group of Y7 (10 year olds) who are studying The Diary of Anne Frank in their class.
They are using literature circles to read The Diary of Anne Frank.
During the course of this literature circle, students will take on the roles of:

Discussion Director
Summariser
Character Mapper
Creative Connector
Word Wizard
Illustrator
Correspondent
Travel Tracer

They meet regularly to discuss and debate issues and understandings from their set reading. They will take a different role after each literature circle meeting.

This is very new to them and they need a lot of support and scaffolding, but hopefully by the middle of the year they will be able to produce their own blogs in an authentic classroom context.

You can find their work on thediaryofannefrank.blogspot.com

They would love to get your feedback.

I was looking on the net at the School for the Future in Philadelphia - where they have no desks, but use podiums with computers on and the floor. In this way, they say they can improve the fitness of their students while they learn.

My principal is on the Board of Trustees for a new middle school yet to be built. The other day, he asked the question "If you had a blank canvas, what would a school for the 21st century look like? (We are talking about physical buildings and classrooms, not about equipment and technology).
In effect he does have a blank canvas. What an exciting position to be in!

So I am setting the challenge - if you had a blank canvas, what would your school for the 21st century look like?