The CityU tech musings of Brian Arnot: Blogs in Education
http://weblogg-ed.com - great blog discussion on a variety of eductional topics
http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/ - Blog resources
http://fletch3836-learningasyougo.blogspot.com/ - a blog from a middle school math/science teacher which demonstrates how blogs can be used in non traditional environments.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Blogs in Education
Blogging is taking many different forms in education. There are many blogs dedicated to discussions around education policy. Many of these blogs are moderated by writers from established newspapers and magazines. These blogs allow the public to argue about current policy decisions in education and attempt to spread the message of new trends in education.
There are many blogs being used by teachers. They may be using them to share their experiences in the classroom and reflect upon their own teaching/learning. Blogs can also be used as a classroom communication device. Sharing updates on current assignments, classroom policies, and providing a dialog space on current happenings in the classroom. These sites allow parents to ask questions, clarify assignments, or provide feedback.
Blogs can also be used to extend the classroom learning environment outside of the traditional building. A teacher can pose questions for students to respond directly to that may have them searching the web for additional resources to comment on. The dialog that can occur between students outside the constraints of the time in class may provide for deeper conversations and learning. Students also have the ability to post and get comments from adults in the working world. This can help students connect their learning to the real world and motivate them to become more effective communicators.
The challenge with classroom blogs that students participate in is the need for additional education on internet safety. Students need to learn not to put information in their blog posts that will identify them outside of the classroom community. To this end students need to use aliases that are identified for the teacher. Teachers can also provide safety by ensuring that comments to blogs have to be approved by the teacher before posting. However, requiring this may over burden the instuctor and slow down the educational process.
There are many blogs being used by teachers. They may be using them to share their experiences in the classroom and reflect upon their own teaching/learning. Blogs can also be used as a classroom communication device. Sharing updates on current assignments, classroom policies, and providing a dialog space on current happenings in the classroom. These sites allow parents to ask questions, clarify assignments, or provide feedback.
Blogs can also be used to extend the classroom learning environment outside of the traditional building. A teacher can pose questions for students to respond directly to that may have them searching the web for additional resources to comment on. The dialog that can occur between students outside the constraints of the time in class may provide for deeper conversations and learning. Students also have the ability to post and get comments from adults in the working world. This can help students connect their learning to the real world and motivate them to become more effective communicators.
The challenge with classroom blogs that students participate in is the need for additional education on internet safety. Students need to learn not to put information in their blog posts that will identify them outside of the classroom community. To this end students need to use aliases that are identified for the teacher. Teachers can also provide safety by ensuring that comments to blogs have to be approved by the teacher before posting. However, requiring this may over burden the instuctor and slow down the educational process.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Educational Journals
I have two journals that I subscribe to one in print and the other as a blog. In print I subscribe to NCTM Middle School Mathematics journal. This is great resource for current topics in mathematics that affect middle school students and teachers.
The blog that I use is the Association of Curriculum Development (ASCD) that has an blog about current issues in curriculum development and technical issues. The blog has subtopics to focus your interest and access to an archive of posts. The technical thread is recently discussing replacing current student desks with desks with computers integrated into them. The touch screens nicknamed "Star Trek" after the scifi tv show that had touch control screens for the computer system would project to a common teacher station. http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/
The blog that I use is the Association of Curriculum Development (ASCD) that has an blog about current issues in curriculum development and technical issues. The blog has subtopics to focus your interest and access to an archive of posts. The technical thread is recently discussing replacing current student desks with desks with computers integrated into them. The touch screens nicknamed "Star Trek" after the scifi tv show that had touch control screens for the computer system would project to a common teacher station. http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/
PPT as an Educational Tool
In our district students start using ppt as an educational tool during elementary school where they create simple presentations. As they progress into middle school they use them in their LA/SS classes and in the tech elective. I do not use powerpoint in my class as I have an interactive whiteboard and use the flipchart software that is more interactive for the students than powerpoint allows. In flipchart you can write on the pages during the presentation and choose to save the work or not depending on if you need the information.
The teachers that are effectively using powerpoint with their students are adding the use of voice overs in appropriate places. They also are incorporating the use of powerpoint as an alternative summative evaluation tool to unit tests.
As we build towards the future and need to reach to students outside of our classroom their may be a need to develop more of the classroom presentations in powerpoint or other similar presentation software. This would provide students the ability to observe the classroom lesson on their schedule.
Additional web resources that teachers new to powerpoint might find helpful can be found at:
PowerPoint -- Creating Classroom Presentations http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech013.shtml
PowerPoint uses to extend educational reach
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/Education.htm
The teachers that are effectively using powerpoint with their students are adding the use of voice overs in appropriate places. They also are incorporating the use of powerpoint as an alternative summative evaluation tool to unit tests.
As we build towards the future and need to reach to students outside of our classroom their may be a need to develop more of the classroom presentations in powerpoint or other similar presentation software. This would provide students the ability to observe the classroom lesson on their schedule.
Additional web resources that teachers new to powerpoint might find helpful can be found at:
PowerPoint -- Creating Classroom Presentations http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech013.shtml
PowerPoint uses to extend educational reach
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/Education.htm
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives
The students we deal with in middle school are definitely digital natives. One of the downsides of this is a struggle to think in depth and write effectively. Students are multitasking so much with texting, im, chat, listening to music, and doing hw that they don't attend to any one thing with depth. In the classroom it creates challenges when you want them to analyze and describe things in detail. It also creates challenges for the teacher in keeping your classroom lessons interactive and engaging enough to keep them engaged. I am a mix of both as I had access to computers earlier than many of my peers with my parents being programmers.
Natives do need to learn to unplug and engage in some lessons in the old way. Math curriculum can be updated to make it more problem solving based but the base skills still need to be taught in a sequential manner as math builds on the understanding of previous concepts in order to use more advanced ideas.
Immigrants also need to be able to learn new methods of approaching subjects as curriculum may only be created digitally instead of on paper. Without accessing this immigrants may be left behind on new ideas and concepts that will be more interactive.
Natives do need to learn to unplug and engage in some lessons in the old way. Math curriculum can be updated to make it more problem solving based but the base skills still need to be taught in a sequential manner as math builds on the understanding of previous concepts in order to use more advanced ideas.
Immigrants also need to be able to learn new methods of approaching subjects as curriculum may only be created digitally instead of on paper. Without accessing this immigrants may be left behind on new ideas and concepts that will be more interactive.
First Day
I teach 8th grade math a Pine Lake Middle School in the Issaquah School District. I spent 10 years in the tech industry before becoming a teacher 4 years ago. In my classroom I use a promethean interactive white board for all of my lessons and occassionally use voters. I can figure out most Microsoft apps having spent 5 years as a contractor around Microsoft.
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