I was sitting talking to a group of students on Friday, the last day before the holidays, and the conversation turned to their teachers. One student commented that there are certain things that teachers need to know. Never one to miss an opportunity I took out my ipod and started to record what their thoughts on what is important for all teachers to know.
Here is the result...
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.
It's not often you find something on the web that immediately excites you about how it can enhance student learning, but I just found one. It's called sketchcast and it took me a few seconds to draw this picture of my dog who is looking at me quizically at this moment.
I'm no artist but honestly this took me about 30 seconds. And you can add audio as well.
All sorts of uses in the classroom spring to mind, and the kids will just love this one.
I found this on Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's blog. The funniest thing I've seen for ages.
Thanks Sheryl, I needed a good laugh. Labels: humor, humour, teaching, youtube
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
