Welcome!
I would like to welcome you to the class. I've been looking forward to teaching it!
The technologies of blogging, wikis, and podcasts are really started to take root in education in the last few months. What about them attracted your attention? Is there one in particular that intrigues you? Click on the "Comments" link below and add your thoughts.
(Before you get too deep in serious thought, I really like this cartoon!)
(Oh, and what the heck - the official Ninja explanation of podcasting!) )
Now, back to our regularly-scheduled question -
Conn
posted by Conn McQuinn @ 4:17 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
It seems that 7 out of 10 kids have ipods. I am interested in finding new ways to use this technology (podcasting) to enhance learing in my classroom. I know very little about the technology.
I have been intrigued by webblogs for sometime, but last spring thought that this might be a great venue for getting kids more deeply involved in discussing literature. In talking with several of my English teachers I decided this class would be a great way to begin the process.
I am new to podcasting. It has very exciting possibilities in the clssroom. Students and teachers now have access to information in real-time. I look forward to learning more.
I believe that the use of blogs in education is taking root because people are looking for ways of establishing community. The classroom is an extension of that. Having blogged for the last few years, I find that I look forward to writing more as my friends respond more and more to what I wrote. Myspace is an example of online community that is merging the blog, photocasting, podcasting, and several other "community" web 2.0 tools that kids are using. The biggest challenge I face as a teacher of teachers is convincing them that the community they grew up in (the telephone age) is being replaced by newer technologies. OK, I'm not focusing here. Let me rephrase,
- students already have blogs, they know them as "MySpace".
- students create communities of friends through their MySpace pages
- due to the age difference/generation gap, teachers did not create their social circles using online tools--they weren't available
- instead, they used the technology available to them (telephones...any objections, just watch any of the 80's sparkle pop films and see how big a role the telephone played to teeenagers)
- teachers network through face to face interaction and telephone, and more recently, through email
- students network through any and all technologies available to them (they aren't limited to any one technology)
- students are more tolerant of change, their world changes every two weeks...LOL
I'm as interested in blogs as the others here, and podcasts are certainly relevant to our work in Instructional Technology. However, wikis are intriguing to me. As I understand them, they serve as a shared collection of knowledge - like an encyclopedia with potentially infinite (or several) authors. I want to think about how to use wikis in our work to make us a more productive and effective learning community, but also want to help the educators and students that I work with to see the power (and pitfalls) of using wikis in the classroom.
This is all new to me.
My background is in teaching high school journalism, Creative Writing and American Studies. Providing students with authentic learning opportunities is something I've strived for in my classroom as well as with my colleagues.
The opportunities that Blogging creates for writers are absolutely incredible. Not only does the publishing online aspect motivate students to be more conscious of what they say, but it creates a true audience for them.
I have been looking for ways to use computers (motivating element)to help students to collaborate, and improve their communication skills. I have friends with bloggs and I enjoy checking up on their lives by reading them.
What little I know about Wiki's has sparked an interest as a way for students to work together collaboratively to creat a research project.
I have watched several podcasts using iTunes to keep up my professional growth. I know students at my school are very interested in video and creating content and the new version of pinnacle has the ability to save video as a podcast so I think students might be interested in taking on the challenge of creating a podcast to portray life at GR.
It's new to me too, but that doesn't mean I can't figure out a way to make it work for me. I love the comment about community -- this is exactly how I can pitch it to TPTB because community and relationships is quite the buzzword in the Smaller Learning Communities conversation.
From one of our librarian/teachers (re blogging):
I think it's pretty exciting because we have all--students, teacher,
librarians and district instructional leader--personally experienced how a weblog extends the walls of the classroom to encompass authors and other expert resources. Mr. Shusterman has been very kind to share his enthusiasm for the story with our students, and explain what the symbolism means to him. These are students who describe themselves as not being interested in reading, and yet they are hurrying to their weblog to read his comments to their posts.
Here are a couple examples of student weblogs. Author Neal Shusterman responds to students about his book, Full Tilt. Note that these are level 1 and 2 WASL students:
http://schoolcenter.nsd.org/education/projects/projects.php?sectionid=5513
http://schoolcenter.nsd.org/education/components/blog/default.php?sectiondet
>> ailid=51088&sc_id=1147970535
Post a Comment
<< Home