As my current course at Walden University draws to a close, I realize the importance of reflecting on the learning experiences in which I have engaged as a member of the class. This course, entitled “Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society,” has transformed my views on the integration of technology in the classroom. Before beginning this class, I thought that I was technologically savvy because I implemented powerpoints, videos, interactive websites, etc. as part of my instructional methodology. I now realize that I was barely scraping the surface in realizing technology’s potential in my classroom.
My learning experiences in this course have opened my eyes to the importance of recognizing that today’s Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001) learn differently than I did when I was a student. Today’s learners have been utilizing technology since they were mere toddlers and not only want to see technology used as part of their education, but they expect it. In order to remain educationally relevant for my students, I must ensure that my classroom is learner-focused rather than teacher-focused. Essentially, what this means is that my students will not receive the best education possible by sitting and listening to me lecture them. This type of classroom environment assumes that the teacher is the sole provider of academic knowledge for students. The Read/Write Web, however, has turned this idea upside down. Students today can find information with the click of a button. Therefore, my job as an educator is to create learning experiences for my students that will challenge them academically while also teaching them critical 21st century skills such as expert decision-making and advanced communication. How can I do this? Thanks to this course, I know that it is possible by implementing Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts (Richardson, 2009).
Throughout the eight weeks I have participated in this course, I have learned how to publish my ideas on a blog, engage in collaborative efforts on a wiki, and record my knowledge for the world to hear on a podcast. More importantly, though, I have gained fresh perspectives on how I can integrate these tools in my classroom so that my students can reap their benefits. Already, I have established a class wiki where my students are beginning to collaboratively publish what they know and are learning about good writing. Not only do they feel a sense of pride that their ideas are being placed online for others to view, but they have been actively engaged in working together to determine the content that will be placed on the wiki in the future. I am in awe of the motivation this has inspired within my students, but I am also pleased that my implementation of this Web 2.0 tool is nurturing skills within my students that will serve them well for so many years to come as they endeavor into the 21st century workplace.
Now that I have completed this course, I have set some long-term goals for myself based on the knowledge I have gained. First, while my class wiki has obviously just been started and will take a long time and a lot of collaborative effort on the part of my students, I would ideally like to see this wiki become a wealth of information about 8th grade English/language arts content. I want the wiki to house all of the information my students learn throughout the course of the year, and I would like it to eventually become a place where other 8th grade teachers and students from around the state of Georgia can go to see what my students have learned and to contribute their own knowledge in order to demonstrate different perspectives. Another goal I have is to become a model for other teachers at my school who may be seeking ways to revolutionize their own classrooms; I want to be the “change agent” (Richardson, 2009) at my school who can lead teachers toward integrating technology more effectively by first maximizing its use in my own classroom to impact student achievement. I firmly believe that by utilizing technology to its full potential in my own instruction, other teachers will begin to follow suit once they see my example of how it can increase student achievement and motivation.
I recognize that in striving to achieve these goals, I will face some institutional and systemic obstacles. In the article “The New Literacies” (2007), Miners and Pascopella elaborated on two such struggles that I fear most: economic pressures and strict testing mandates. The purchase of new technology has sadly been slashed in many current budget cuts, and high-stakes testing has made it so that the skills learned by utilizing technology are often overshadowed by the idea that students need to focus on academic content only and how to take paper-pencil assessments. In spite of these challenges, I have recognized the power of integrating Web 2.0 tools in my classroom and am resolved to do everything in my strength to implement them as fully as I can. By getting creative, I can use the tools I already have at my disposal to meet my goals. Even if I were limited to just one computer, I can still allow my students to collaborate to determine the content that will be placed on our wiki and I can still develop powerful academic lessons that utilize Web. 2.0 tools at their finest so that other teachers can observe their power. What this will take is patience, courage, and determination on my part. If I have this, I will be able to transform my classroom environment in spite of any obstacles that stand in my way.
Although I am finishing this course, I am not finished with the ideas I have learned from it. I will continue to expand my knowledge of combining technology and my content area instruction by staying up-to-date on the newest tools available, practicing their use on my own, and determining creative ways to instructionally incorporate them with my students. While I am excited about using these forms of technology, I am even more energized to see how the integration of these tools will benefit my students both now and in their futures!
References:
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Profiling the Students of Today
This week has been yet another positive learning experience in my current course at Walden University; we learned all about podcasting and how we can use this form of technology with our students. Please check out my podcast in which I interviewed 3 students to learn about how technology has impacted their lives, both socially and academically. I hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you think!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
For this week's application assignment in my graduate coursework at Walden University, I was given the task of exploring and evaluating the website of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. According to their website, the Partnership's mission is to "serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community, and government leaders" (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/). In other words, the goal of the Partnership is to foster relationships between the classroom and the "real" world to help prepare our students for the challenges they will face in the 21st century workplace. In previous weeks in my current course at Walden, we have discussed whether or not there is a disconnect between the skills our students are learning in today's educational setting and the critical skills they will need to thrive in the modern workplace. As I explored this group's website this week, I realized that they do believe this gap exists and view the aforementioned relationship as a crucial solution to the problem. The website states, "To successfully face rigorous higher education coursework, career challenges, and a globally competitive workforce, US schools must align classroom environments with real world environments by infusing 21st century skills into their teaching and learning" (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/). The website offers numerous articles, links, and resources that educators can explore in the quest to successfully bring to life this vision of teaching our students not only our state-mandated curriculums, but also the critical skills they will need in the future.
As I explored the website, my reaction to the organization's goals and work thus far was quite positive. I was highly impressed with the number of corporations that are board members for the organization. These businesses include Intel, Apple, Dell, Ford Motor Company, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Verizon just to name a few. As I perused this list of companies that are involved with the organization, I must admit that I was surprised that I have not heard more about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in the past. I would imagine that these companies would be quite proud to be involved with such an organization and with doing what they can to foster relationships with our students of today and their future employees. It made me wonder what would happen if these corporations were more vocal about their connection with the Partnership. Would more companies get involved? Would more attention, and thus more funds for resources, be thrust on this organization that is so dedicated to helping us as educators to prepare our students to be successful in the 21st century workplace? Additionally, I was interested in the initiatives started by the organization in ten states thus far. It appears that the Partnership is doing a commendable job of helping these states get on the right track toward integrating 21st century skills into their schools. Why, then, aren't more states getting involved? In a nation where no child is to be left behind, according to our government, why aren't these initiatives being implemented in all of our states so that all of our students have equitable access to resources that will help them learn 21st century knowledge and skills? Essentially, I would like to see more attention given to organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills; given the current state of our economy and the difficult time our nation is facing, I think it would be a positive step in the right direction to focus on providing tools such as those provided by this organization for our students so that they can successfully compete in the global workforce. In the article, "The New Literacies," Miners and Pascopella describe state initiatives such as the Partnership as "pockets of hope" that can "alter the educational technology landscape" (2007, p. 30). Thus, I feel that it is my job as a dedicated teacher to explore the work of organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, even if my state has not yet stepped up to the plate to acknowledge the importance of integrating these skills within our curriculum.
As a contemporary educator, I feel that this website has extraordinary implications for my students. I was energized to discover their resource database, Route21, which offers information about classroom materials, books, other websites, etc. that educators can examine. These resources can be browsed by support system, knowledge, and skill, which means the resources are easily accessed depending on your interest. Personally, I viewed some of the resources on the site based on my core subject area (English/language arts) and now have a lengthy list of websites I am looking forward to examining based on the helpful annotations provided in the database. By examining these resources, I can educate myself about ways to develop a relationship between my state curriculum and information and communications technology so that my students will walk away from my classroom being more prepared to thrive in the modern workplace than ever before. After evaluating the website, I believe this type of assistance for educators is one of the critical goals of this organization. Who can disagree with that? I know I can't.
In the article "Characteristics of a Globally Competitive Workforce," Bates and Phelan stated, "Today's workers are being asked to learn new technologies, to develop innovative techniques, to cross-function in work teams, to troubleshoot, to work independently, and to assume the leadership role in front-line positions" (2002, p. 122). Who is responsible for preparing our students to do all of these things? You guessed it--we as educators. However, organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, remind me that it is not an impossible endeavor, especially when relationships can be developed between educators and the employers for whom we are preparing our students. I, personally, am looking forward to further exploring the work of this organization so that I can use their resources to reap benefits for my students.
If you have not yet heard of this organization, I urge you to check out their website--particularly the Route 21 resource database. If you find any resources that you believe to be particularly worthy of further examination, please don't hesitate to comment about them here. After all, as we have learned in my current course, collaboration is a key skill for the 21st century workplace. Fortunately, organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, make that collaboration a little easier!
References:
Bates, R., & Phelan, K. (2002). Characteristics of a globally competitive workforce. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(2), 121.
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
As I explored the website, my reaction to the organization's goals and work thus far was quite positive. I was highly impressed with the number of corporations that are board members for the organization. These businesses include Intel, Apple, Dell, Ford Motor Company, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Verizon just to name a few. As I perused this list of companies that are involved with the organization, I must admit that I was surprised that I have not heard more about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in the past. I would imagine that these companies would be quite proud to be involved with such an organization and with doing what they can to foster relationships with our students of today and their future employees. It made me wonder what would happen if these corporations were more vocal about their connection with the Partnership. Would more companies get involved? Would more attention, and thus more funds for resources, be thrust on this organization that is so dedicated to helping us as educators to prepare our students to be successful in the 21st century workplace? Additionally, I was interested in the initiatives started by the organization in ten states thus far. It appears that the Partnership is doing a commendable job of helping these states get on the right track toward integrating 21st century skills into their schools. Why, then, aren't more states getting involved? In a nation where no child is to be left behind, according to our government, why aren't these initiatives being implemented in all of our states so that all of our students have equitable access to resources that will help them learn 21st century knowledge and skills? Essentially, I would like to see more attention given to organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills; given the current state of our economy and the difficult time our nation is facing, I think it would be a positive step in the right direction to focus on providing tools such as those provided by this organization for our students so that they can successfully compete in the global workforce. In the article, "The New Literacies," Miners and Pascopella describe state initiatives such as the Partnership as "pockets of hope" that can "alter the educational technology landscape" (2007, p. 30). Thus, I feel that it is my job as a dedicated teacher to explore the work of organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, even if my state has not yet stepped up to the plate to acknowledge the importance of integrating these skills within our curriculum.
As a contemporary educator, I feel that this website has extraordinary implications for my students. I was energized to discover their resource database, Route21, which offers information about classroom materials, books, other websites, etc. that educators can examine. These resources can be browsed by support system, knowledge, and skill, which means the resources are easily accessed depending on your interest. Personally, I viewed some of the resources on the site based on my core subject area (English/language arts) and now have a lengthy list of websites I am looking forward to examining based on the helpful annotations provided in the database. By examining these resources, I can educate myself about ways to develop a relationship between my state curriculum and information and communications technology so that my students will walk away from my classroom being more prepared to thrive in the modern workplace than ever before. After evaluating the website, I believe this type of assistance for educators is one of the critical goals of this organization. Who can disagree with that? I know I can't.
In the article "Characteristics of a Globally Competitive Workforce," Bates and Phelan stated, "Today's workers are being asked to learn new technologies, to develop innovative techniques, to cross-function in work teams, to troubleshoot, to work independently, and to assume the leadership role in front-line positions" (2002, p. 122). Who is responsible for preparing our students to do all of these things? You guessed it--we as educators. However, organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, remind me that it is not an impossible endeavor, especially when relationships can be developed between educators and the employers for whom we are preparing our students. I, personally, am looking forward to further exploring the work of this organization so that I can use their resources to reap benefits for my students.
If you have not yet heard of this organization, I urge you to check out their website--particularly the Route 21 resource database. If you find any resources that you believe to be particularly worthy of further examination, please don't hesitate to comment about them here. After all, as we have learned in my current course, collaboration is a key skill for the 21st century workplace. Fortunately, organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, make that collaboration a little easier!
References:
Bates, R., & Phelan, K. (2002). Characteristics of a globally competitive workforce. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(2), 121.
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Wikitacular!
Wiki Reflection: Bryant
This week has been such an enlightening experience for me! I have learned so much throughout the process of creating a wiki with my group. While I was initially nervous about using some of the features and about not being technologically savvy enough to keep up with the other members of my group, I quickly learned that wikis are very user-friendly and can be picked up on easily if you are simply willing to take the time to play around with the features. There were a few instances where I found that I mistakenly typed things in error that I needed to change, and I even accidentally deleted one of our icons that led to our “At a Glance” ratings page. However, I found that I was easily able to revert the wiki back to its previous state and my errors were able to be fixed even though I was not an expert at using this type of technology.
I found that collaborating with my group during this project was a very positive experience. Everyone was willing to jump in and do her part. We all were understanding of the fact that we were mostly new to this, and therefore we did not oppose to any changes others made to pages we had created. This project was not “Amanda’s” project--it was a collaborative effort of the Wikitacular Crew, and I felt that we all took a joint pride in the product we created together. One thing I quickly learned was that I had to be willing to step out and test the features that were available through the wiki, even though I was unsure of what some of them were for when I initially started with them. For example, my group quickly realized that we became overwhelmed with all of the ideas being tossed out in different areas. Some of us were posting in the application area on the Walden page, while some of us were posting in the discussion forum on the wiki page. Therefore, we were having to bounce back and forth to look at everyone’s comments, which was a bit of a struggle. Someone suggested that it would be nice if we were able to have a live chat on our page to be able to discuss changes we might want to make in “real-time.” While none of us knew if this function existed or not, I decided to look around at the widgets available and found one that could be embedded on a page to allow for us to chat as a group. While I am unsure of whether this will work the way we want it since the project is almost over, it is good to know that this function is there. While I believe this feature would have been much more beneficial if I had discovered it earlier in the week, I believe that this project was about learning the features of the wiki and how we can implement them in our future use. Thus, I learned that there are numerous features available on a wiki that are quite simple to use if only I make sure that I educate myself about how to use them; I must be dedicated to doing this so that I can make full use of all the incredible functions available through technology of wikis so that I can teach my students how to use them.
As I mentioned, our wiki page was a true collaborative effort; I believe that if I apply this knowledge to the use of wikis in my classroom, the tool could generate some truly amazing work. Richardson stated, “As we continue to move toward a world where everyone has access to ideas and where collaboration is the expectation…, wikis can go a long way to teaching our students some very useful skills for their future” (2009, p. 59). After all, as Dede mentioned (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008), expert decision making and complex communication are critical skills our students will need in the 21st century workplace. As I worked with my Wikitacular Crew this week, I had to make decisions about changes to the page that would impact my group’s product and I had to communicate with colleagues whom I have never met face-to-face to discuss how we would work together to achieve our common goal of creating a wiki page that would serve all the purposes we had for it. I plan to use those experiences to inform my implementation of this tool in my classroom so that I can teach my students the important skills they will need once they enter their careers.
I am thrilled about the possibilities associated with using wikis as an instructional tool in my classroom. I have already set up my own wiki and am looking forward to using it as a collaborative site where my students can share writing tips, sign up for book projects, post their notes from what we are learning in class, etc. The potential is endless! There will definitely need to be some careful parameters in place before I undertake this project with my students. I believe that it will be important to place my students in small groups and make them each responsible for a particular page on the wiki; this will help to ensure that everyone is clear on his/her contributions that need to be made to the page rather than simply turning them loose and telling them to update the site as a whole. Additionally, I plan to show them other class wikis, as well as putting them on our own wiki to play with the features and envision what widgets can be used to accomplish their goals with me overseeing what they do before I expect them to truly “take the reins” on the project. While I agree that projects like wikis do come with the risks of being vulnerable to certain students who may want to make changes to the site with bad intent, the beauty of the wiki is that all changes can be viewed in the history log. This will largely serve to dissuade any students who may try to intentionally mess up the wiki because they know the changes they make can be tied back to them. Furthermore, it is comforting to know that even when my students make changes on accident (or even when I do this while I am still learning to use the tool), the wiki can always be restored as necessary. As with any tool from the Read/Write Web being used in the classroom, I know that it will be important for me to carefully monitor my students and make sure they are using the tool appropriately. However, if I make sure that I do this, I firmly believe that wikis will be a tool that will transform learning in my classroom in a powerful way!
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). The Changing Work Environment: Part 2 [Motion picture]. Baltimore: Author.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
This week has been such an enlightening experience for me! I have learned so much throughout the process of creating a wiki with my group. While I was initially nervous about using some of the features and about not being technologically savvy enough to keep up with the other members of my group, I quickly learned that wikis are very user-friendly and can be picked up on easily if you are simply willing to take the time to play around with the features. There were a few instances where I found that I mistakenly typed things in error that I needed to change, and I even accidentally deleted one of our icons that led to our “At a Glance” ratings page. However, I found that I was easily able to revert the wiki back to its previous state and my errors were able to be fixed even though I was not an expert at using this type of technology.
I found that collaborating with my group during this project was a very positive experience. Everyone was willing to jump in and do her part. We all were understanding of the fact that we were mostly new to this, and therefore we did not oppose to any changes others made to pages we had created. This project was not “Amanda’s” project--it was a collaborative effort of the Wikitacular Crew, and I felt that we all took a joint pride in the product we created together. One thing I quickly learned was that I had to be willing to step out and test the features that were available through the wiki, even though I was unsure of what some of them were for when I initially started with them. For example, my group quickly realized that we became overwhelmed with all of the ideas being tossed out in different areas. Some of us were posting in the application area on the Walden page, while some of us were posting in the discussion forum on the wiki page. Therefore, we were having to bounce back and forth to look at everyone’s comments, which was a bit of a struggle. Someone suggested that it would be nice if we were able to have a live chat on our page to be able to discuss changes we might want to make in “real-time.” While none of us knew if this function existed or not, I decided to look around at the widgets available and found one that could be embedded on a page to allow for us to chat as a group. While I am unsure of whether this will work the way we want it since the project is almost over, it is good to know that this function is there. While I believe this feature would have been much more beneficial if I had discovered it earlier in the week, I believe that this project was about learning the features of the wiki and how we can implement them in our future use. Thus, I learned that there are numerous features available on a wiki that are quite simple to use if only I make sure that I educate myself about how to use them; I must be dedicated to doing this so that I can make full use of all the incredible functions available through technology of wikis so that I can teach my students how to use them.
As I mentioned, our wiki page was a true collaborative effort; I believe that if I apply this knowledge to the use of wikis in my classroom, the tool could generate some truly amazing work. Richardson stated, “As we continue to move toward a world where everyone has access to ideas and where collaboration is the expectation…, wikis can go a long way to teaching our students some very useful skills for their future” (2009, p. 59). After all, as Dede mentioned (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008), expert decision making and complex communication are critical skills our students will need in the 21st century workplace. As I worked with my Wikitacular Crew this week, I had to make decisions about changes to the page that would impact my group’s product and I had to communicate with colleagues whom I have never met face-to-face to discuss how we would work together to achieve our common goal of creating a wiki page that would serve all the purposes we had for it. I plan to use those experiences to inform my implementation of this tool in my classroom so that I can teach my students the important skills they will need once they enter their careers.
I am thrilled about the possibilities associated with using wikis as an instructional tool in my classroom. I have already set up my own wiki and am looking forward to using it as a collaborative site where my students can share writing tips, sign up for book projects, post their notes from what we are learning in class, etc. The potential is endless! There will definitely need to be some careful parameters in place before I undertake this project with my students. I believe that it will be important to place my students in small groups and make them each responsible for a particular page on the wiki; this will help to ensure that everyone is clear on his/her contributions that need to be made to the page rather than simply turning them loose and telling them to update the site as a whole. Additionally, I plan to show them other class wikis, as well as putting them on our own wiki to play with the features and envision what widgets can be used to accomplish their goals with me overseeing what they do before I expect them to truly “take the reins” on the project. While I agree that projects like wikis do come with the risks of being vulnerable to certain students who may want to make changes to the site with bad intent, the beauty of the wiki is that all changes can be viewed in the history log. This will largely serve to dissuade any students who may try to intentionally mess up the wiki because they know the changes they make can be tied back to them. Furthermore, it is comforting to know that even when my students make changes on accident (or even when I do this while I am still learning to use the tool), the wiki can always be restored as necessary. As with any tool from the Read/Write Web being used in the classroom, I know that it will be important for me to carefully monitor my students and make sure they are using the tool appropriately. However, if I make sure that I do this, I firmly believe that wikis will be a tool that will transform learning in my classroom in a powerful way!
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). The Changing Work Environment: Part 2 [Motion picture]. Baltimore: Author.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Bryant's My Name, and Blogging is My New Game!
This week in my current course at Walden University, we are exploring the possibilities that lie within incorporating blogs in the classroom. According to Richardson, "Through the unique process of blogging...students are learning to read more critically, think about reading more analytically, and write more clearly" (2009, p. 20). What teacher does not want that from her students? Therefore, I must confess that I am ecstatic about implementing blogs in numerous ways in my classroom during the upcoming school year.
Richardson offered many ideas that captured my attention for how blogs might be used instructionally. While I am energized to try many of these, including posting class-related information and engaging my students in discussions regarding current news topics, his ideas about creating literature circles or online book clubs (2009, p. 39) using a class blog intrigued me the most. As I have been exploring educational blogs during the last two weeks, I found one class blog in which the students read self-selected books and post reviews (http://maggie-kidstalkbooks.blogspot.com/) of what they have read. After analyzing what this particular teacher's students had done on their class blog, an idea for how I might incorporate this into my own 8th grade English/language arts class began to form.
Each year, I assign my students to literature circles. Based on their reading levels, my students are given a list of potential books they can read, along with short plot summaries of the books. I allow my students to rank the books according to which ones they most want to read; I then form the literature circles based on that information. Once my students are in their literature circles, they are each assigned a different role everytime their group gets together to read. These include the summarizer, illuminating illustrator, word wizard, literary luminary, connector, and discussion director. (For more information on literature circles, click the hyperlink or go to the following address: http://litsite.alaska.edu/workbooks/circlereading.html. This site was very useful to me when I first started implementing this instructional strategy in my classroom).
In the past, I have simply brought my students together during closing time and allowed them to share their work completed in their literature circles with their classmates. Blogging, however, could take my literature circles to the next level. Regarding class blogs, November articulated, "The audience moves from teacher and class to the world...It is even possible that teachers do not have to work as hard to motivate traditionally failing students or to set much higher expectations for excelling students" (2008, p. 81). Instead of simply limiting my students to sharing their work with the people they see in class each and every day, my goal is to begin showcasing my students' literature circle work on the class blog. My students could easily type in the information onto the blog themselves. The only role that would need to be tweaked would be the artful artist; however, the drawings could be scanned in and easily placed on the blog as well.
There are so many possibilities for improving my literature circles that come with doing them on the class blog. First, as previously noted, the motivation factor would be very inspiring for my students. Knowing that their work was out there for people to read and appreciate would be very appealing to many of my young learners. Using the blog to showcase the fine work they have done would cause my students to take more pride in what they do and would likely prompt them to give their literature circle roles their best efforts. Once my students get the idea of sharing their work on the blog down, they could begin to engage in online discussions with one another about their books. I am thrilled to think of the critical analysis skills this could help my students practice. Furthermore, since other 8th grade students in my school are reading the same books, I could collaborate with my fellow teachers to see if they wanted to engage in linking our blogs so that all of the classes could share in analyzing the books together. It is even possible that the students could connect with other 8th graders from around the state, country, and even the world who are reading the same book. I envision discussions of interesting vocabulary, connections to life experiences, character analysis, etc.; it is essentially a teacher's dream! Best of all, the students would be highly engaged in the learning process because of the enhanced meaning behind their work because of its shared component. Sure, my students usually enjoy their literature circles because they select the books themselves and get to engage in discussions about them with their classmates. However, incorporating blogging as part of the literature circles will make the experience even more powerful since the audiences for their work and the voices for their discussions can become virtually limitless.
As you can see, I am very enthused about all the possibilities that blogging can offer for my students and me as a key part of our classroom instruction. While this will be my first year to implement this technology as part of my teaching methodology, I feel confident that it will be a successful endeavor--an educational adventure that I believe my students will heartily enjoy!
Fellow classmates, do you have any ideas about how I might improve upon my idea for using blogs with my students' literature circles? Thank you in advance for any suggestions you might be able to provide.
References:
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Copyright 2008 by Sage Publications, Inc. Used by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Richardson offered many ideas that captured my attention for how blogs might be used instructionally. While I am energized to try many of these, including posting class-related information and engaging my students in discussions regarding current news topics, his ideas about creating literature circles or online book clubs (2009, p. 39) using a class blog intrigued me the most. As I have been exploring educational blogs during the last two weeks, I found one class blog in which the students read self-selected books and post reviews (http://maggie-kidstalkbooks.blogspot.com/) of what they have read. After analyzing what this particular teacher's students had done on their class blog, an idea for how I might incorporate this into my own 8th grade English/language arts class began to form.
Each year, I assign my students to literature circles. Based on their reading levels, my students are given a list of potential books they can read, along with short plot summaries of the books. I allow my students to rank the books according to which ones they most want to read; I then form the literature circles based on that information. Once my students are in their literature circles, they are each assigned a different role everytime their group gets together to read. These include the summarizer, illuminating illustrator, word wizard, literary luminary, connector, and discussion director. (For more information on literature circles, click the hyperlink or go to the following address: http://litsite.alaska.edu/workbooks/circlereading.html. This site was very useful to me when I first started implementing this instructional strategy in my classroom).
In the past, I have simply brought my students together during closing time and allowed them to share their work completed in their literature circles with their classmates. Blogging, however, could take my literature circles to the next level. Regarding class blogs, November articulated, "The audience moves from teacher and class to the world...It is even possible that teachers do not have to work as hard to motivate traditionally failing students or to set much higher expectations for excelling students" (2008, p. 81). Instead of simply limiting my students to sharing their work with the people they see in class each and every day, my goal is to begin showcasing my students' literature circle work on the class blog. My students could easily type in the information onto the blog themselves. The only role that would need to be tweaked would be the artful artist; however, the drawings could be scanned in and easily placed on the blog as well.
There are so many possibilities for improving my literature circles that come with doing them on the class blog. First, as previously noted, the motivation factor would be very inspiring for my students. Knowing that their work was out there for people to read and appreciate would be very appealing to many of my young learners. Using the blog to showcase the fine work they have done would cause my students to take more pride in what they do and would likely prompt them to give their literature circle roles their best efforts. Once my students get the idea of sharing their work on the blog down, they could begin to engage in online discussions with one another about their books. I am thrilled to think of the critical analysis skills this could help my students practice. Furthermore, since other 8th grade students in my school are reading the same books, I could collaborate with my fellow teachers to see if they wanted to engage in linking our blogs so that all of the classes could share in analyzing the books together. It is even possible that the students could connect with other 8th graders from around the state, country, and even the world who are reading the same book. I envision discussions of interesting vocabulary, connections to life experiences, character analysis, etc.; it is essentially a teacher's dream! Best of all, the students would be highly engaged in the learning process because of the enhanced meaning behind their work because of its shared component. Sure, my students usually enjoy their literature circles because they select the books themselves and get to engage in discussions about them with their classmates. However, incorporating blogging as part of the literature circles will make the experience even more powerful since the audiences for their work and the voices for their discussions can become virtually limitless.
As you can see, I am very enthused about all the possibilities that blogging can offer for my students and me as a key part of our classroom instruction. While this will be my first year to implement this technology as part of my teaching methodology, I feel confident that it will be a successful endeavor--an educational adventure that I believe my students will heartily enjoy!
Fellow classmates, do you have any ideas about how I might improve upon my idea for using blogs with my students' literature circles? Thank you in advance for any suggestions you might be able to provide.
References:
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Copyright 2008 by Sage Publications, Inc. Used by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts...Oh My!
As a graduate student at Walden University, I am currently taking a course about technology's impact on education, work, and society. This week, I was able to obtain a brief overview of several different types of instructional technologies that can be incorporated into an educator's "toolbox" (Richardson, 2009, p. 9). These include weblogs such as the one I have started here, wikis, RSS feeds, and podcasting. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about how I can implement these tools into my instructional methodology. This year in my ELA classes, I am looking forward to consistently using this blog with my 8th graders. While I am not yet quite as familiar with wikis and podcasts, I am looking forward to learning more about their uses during the coming weeks of my course. For those of you in my class, I am looking forward to continuing this journey with you!
On an additional note, this week I participated in a blog feed about the use of cell phones in the classroom. The article's focus was on how many students are actually using cell phones to cheat. While I understand this concern, I am interested in how we as educators can go about teaching our students to use this technology appropriately, while concurrently incorporating our students' obsession with cell phones as part of our instructional "toolbox." Does anyone have thoughts about this issue? How have you all implemented cell phones into your lesson plans in the past? Do you have ideas about how to utilize them without getting bogged down with the potential of cheating problems? Is anyone adamently opposed to incorporating cell phones in the classroom? I am very interested in everyone's thoughts on this issue. I hope everyone has a great week!
Reference:
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
On an additional note, this week I participated in a blog feed about the use of cell phones in the classroom. The article's focus was on how many students are actually using cell phones to cheat. While I understand this concern, I am interested in how we as educators can go about teaching our students to use this technology appropriately, while concurrently incorporating our students' obsession with cell phones as part of our instructional "toolbox." Does anyone have thoughts about this issue? How have you all implemented cell phones into your lesson plans in the past? Do you have ideas about how to utilize them without getting bogged down with the potential of cheating problems? Is anyone adamently opposed to incorporating cell phones in the classroom? I am very interested in everyone's thoughts on this issue. I hope everyone has a great week!
Reference:
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! My name is Amanda Bryant, and I am in my fifth year of teaching 8th grade English/language arts. If you're interested in learning more about using technology in the classroom, ELA teaching strategies, or just the daily humor that transpires in a middle school classroom, you have found the right place. I hope you enjoy what you read here!
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