In these first chapters, Richardson alludes to the idea that technology is really making waves in all aspects of life today, including education. He explains that the people who will know the most about these technologies are probably just being born. Teachers today face somewhat of a challenge given that many are not fully aware of the programs out there and how to best use them in their classrooms. Richardson states: "Whereas students are open to the ways of new technologies, schools by and large are not" (8). With regard to technology, schools at times lack appropriate resources and teachers who may have the materials do not always know how to best use them.
One of the ideas that Richardson mentions is the usage of blogs between students and teachers. I created a blog last year in my graduate technology class. I was able to experience first hand the power of sharing ideas through a medium in which everyone can participate. Richardson explains that one of the benefits of blogging is that it opens up the window for all students to participate and learn from each other. Quieter students might shy away from voicing ideas and opinions during class, but through usage of a blog, they will be more apt to feel comfortable writing their thoughts down for others to read.
Richardson mentions other types of programs that I would like to explore and get to know better. He mentions social bookmarking sites such as Diigo.com and Delicious.com that I had never even heard of. Even twitter.com is a bit abstract to me. I know people who use it, but I myself have had no experience navigating it.
Just by reading through these first two chapters I have seen what a powerful tool blogs can be. I was amazed to see that a class of students was able to communicate through blogs with the author of The Secret Life of Bees. This blog is an example of what can happen when people collaborate through the use of blogs.
Though I can see the many different advantages of incorporating blogs into teaching and learning, I can't help but worry about the safety issue. Richardson touches on this issue in chapter one and explains that one of the first things to do is talk about the rules and expectations of your students with regard to blogging before beginning to blog. Once students have a good understanding of what is and what is not appropriate internet behavior, a class can begin to share ideas through blogs. I'm curious if anyone in this class has tried blogging with their students. I teach elementary school so I'm wondering how this might work with my students. I know that not all of them have a computer at home. I could take them to the computer lab when I wanted them to respond on a blog. Any ideas? I'd love to hear what experiences people have had with blogging with their own students. How did you promote safety for your students while they work online?
Having said this, I learned a great deal last semester about digital citizenship and what it means to behave appropriately on the web. If anyone wants to look at the blog I created last spring, click here to see it.
Sources:
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Diana, if you're really hesitant, start with KidBlog and use the built-in moderation features. In the Manchester Cohort, we set up a KidBlog so we can practice seeing it from the students' point of view. I am the mock teacher, so I have had to learn how to use the Dashboard in KidBlog. The dashboard is a place the teacher can go to both moderate posts and comments before they go public. However, even if you just moderate comments, you can also delete or edit a post a student makes. The teacher has lots of options, and, of course, using a tool like KidBlog introduces many opportunities to discuss with students Digital Citizenship. You can make the KidBlog private at first, so only students in your class can access it. That will give you the control you initially want if you are worried about Internet safety. Of course, follow your school administrators' policies before venturing into any kind of activity where your students post online even if the site is private for the class only.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Judy. I would definitely feel better knowing that as the teacher I would have control over what was and wasn't published on the blog. I also noticed when commenting on student blogs that we visited in class that my comment couldn't be published until the teacher "OK'ed" it. Definitely like this feature of kidblog!
DeleteIn addition, the teacher can even moderate what blog post goes up. That seems like a lot of work, but with KidBlog, the teacher can also take down a post, which would create an opportunity to discuss with the student the reason. Most teachers, though, just seem to moderate the commenting feature.
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