Twitter is simple, easy, quick to pick up on and easy to use. Unfortunately, I can't imagine a public school firewall that wouldn't rotely block it because of the potential ramifications of its use. Ning would be another potentially great PLN to implement, but again, it was blocked by my school's firewall so I imagine that it would be by most others as well (our firewall is pretty liberal.)
I like the idea of my students creating a PLN within each classroom, but I worry that the limitations by firewall and then by the students that don't have access to the internet at home would hamper the viability of the program.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Blogs in the Classroom
As a geography/social studies teacher, I will focus my list on that content area.
1. I could use the blog to pose discussion questions for my students. They would then respond to the discussion questions and to each other.
2. I could have my students create a research blog. Let's say, for example, that we are doing a unit on Worl War 2. Students could each take a battle and then blog about the various aspects of the battle: who was involved, major players, casualties, strategies, etc.
3. I could use the blog as a journaling experience. Students could assume create an update a blog that would serve as a reaction to the various areas that we study throughout the world.
4. I could have my students create a portfolio with a blog. They could update the blog with a variety of projects, writings, and reactions to various events that have occurred in history.
5. Students could use the blog as a current event tracker. If I assigned each student to a particular region or country in the world, they could do weekly updates regarding the current events of that location.
6. Students could create a blog together that would serve as a collaboration tool. If I wanted them to team up as a group to do some research or a presentation, I could have them serve as co-authors of the blog and input their own work.
1. I could use the blog to pose discussion questions for my students. They would then respond to the discussion questions and to each other.
2. I could have my students create a research blog. Let's say, for example, that we are doing a unit on Worl War 2. Students could each take a battle and then blog about the various aspects of the battle: who was involved, major players, casualties, strategies, etc.
3. I could use the blog as a journaling experience. Students could assume create an update a blog that would serve as a reaction to the various areas that we study throughout the world.
4. I could have my students create a portfolio with a blog. They could update the blog with a variety of projects, writings, and reactions to various events that have occurred in history.
5. Students could use the blog as a current event tracker. If I assigned each student to a particular region or country in the world, they could do weekly updates regarding the current events of that location.
6. Students could create a blog together that would serve as a collaboration tool. If I wanted them to team up as a group to do some research or a presentation, I could have them serve as co-authors of the blog and input their own work.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Initial Thoughts
I have used Blogger in the past for a class assignment. I did not have the students set up their own blog, however. I have instead set up my own blog that posed discussion questions for the students that they were then required to respond to.
I like Blogger because of its ease of use. It is very easy to set-up and modify, and my students in the past have caught onto it very quickly.
The first year that I used Blogger, I experimented with having the students set up their own blog and then they were to respond to a given number of other students blogs for the grade. I liked this because it allowed students greater control over the information that they were learning. The biggest problem, though, was that many of the students used their blogging account inappropriately and they, at times, left negative comments for other students. It required a great deal of follow-up on my part to monitor the student posts. Additionally, some of the students didn't properly set-up their blog so it was available to the entire world. This drew some innappropriate commentary from people not affiliated with the school on some of the blogs before I was able to help the students set it as private.
This year, I intend to use our school's blog that is 100% hosted on our school server. Only members of our learning community will have access to the blog, and it will give me the best of both worlds: students will be more in control of their learning experience and I will be able to more easily monitor the student responses.
I like Blogger because of its ease of use. It is very easy to set-up and modify, and my students in the past have caught onto it very quickly.
The first year that I used Blogger, I experimented with having the students set up their own blog and then they were to respond to a given number of other students blogs for the grade. I liked this because it allowed students greater control over the information that they were learning. The biggest problem, though, was that many of the students used their blogging account inappropriately and they, at times, left negative comments for other students. It required a great deal of follow-up on my part to monitor the student posts. Additionally, some of the students didn't properly set-up their blog so it was available to the entire world. This drew some innappropriate commentary from people not affiliated with the school on some of the blogs before I was able to help the students set it as private.
This year, I intend to use our school's blog that is 100% hosted on our school server. Only members of our learning community will have access to the blog, and it will give me the best of both worlds: students will be more in control of their learning experience and I will be able to more easily monitor the student responses.
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