http://delicious.com/mabrey27_1975
Above is my delicious account. Please let me know if I met the requirements.
Basically I do think that tagging is a useful way to organize the digital world. I had a hard time coming up with 10 sites to put on there but that is because it is summer and I'm not really in the education mode. As soon as I start looking for math and history resources I will most likely use Delicious a lot.
I would think it is important to spell everything correctly and to make sure you include as many tags as possible. You may not always search using the same tag each time so you would have to make sure to create a lot of tag names.
This "thing" was the hardest one for me. I really had a hard time coming up with 10 things to bookmark. I had to really force myself to come up with internet search topics. All I want to do is clean house and go to the pool or beach. My diet was not going well so I found a few diet and exercise sites. I am most confident in my math teaching lessons and abilities so I really didn't feel like looking at a bunch of math sites. I found quite a few history sites to help me condense my social studies timeline for next year. I needed short lessons to make it through a shorter class time next year. I finally had to bookmark my daughters' favorite learning site so it would be bookmarked for future. I have it memorized but they don't. I liked looking at other people's delicious bookmarks and tags. I found a lot of information and it was useful not to have to weed through millions of google sites.
I think this will help me find things and possibly make my conference period a little more productive. I hope to use it a lot in social studies to get a little further than westward expansion. My goal is to get past the civil war this year so I will need to find short lessons. I am pretty sure I will get a lot of help with this goal using delicious.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
thing 7
Basically I liked Google Docs. I have plans to use it and I hope enough other people have learned about it so that my plan is successful. I had a little trouble with opening up the spreadsheet and I don't know why. However, once it was sent directly to me I was able to use it very easily. It is a really cool tool to use as long as others know to use it. I have not been into this stuff until this workshop so I don't know how well people know this application.
I plan to use Google Docs to work on our Family Fun Night at the elementary. It is coming up soon and I will need to get the whole school on the same page. I don't think I could handle it with e-mail and running around all over the school will be hard to do as well. I am getting a little stressed about it but learning about Google Docs is a little bit of a help. I am not sure that enough people will know about it through this workshop in order to use it in August or September but it is worth a shot. If I have to create a bunch of documents then I might as well create them in Google Docs to allow others to help me with them.
Google docs could be good for students to peer edit writing or to work on a projects. However, I am not sure how to determine which kids are doing the lion's share of the work. If I had kids working on projects in a computer lab I might be able to keep track of it but if I want kids to do these things during computer class or at home on their own time, then I can't control it. I am not really sure how it could be used in math but Google Docs is great for reading, writing, and history classes easily. It seems like a great way to collaborate on something. In fact, it seems a lot like a wiki but with a document instead of just a site. I can imagine that all of the benefits of a wiki would be the same benefits for Google Docs only with a tangible, printable outcome.
The main issues I think of are negative. This is a great tool for writing and editing but it would be hard to keep kids from cheating or bullying others into writing for them. It seems a little untraceable unless you are constantly checking on line to see what each student is doing. Issues that the videos brought up are my same issues. Kids would be chatting, or looking at Facebook instead of working. Another issue I have is time. With everything new, there is a lot of time involved in teaching what needs to be taught on top of teaching the additional skills it takes to implement the "something new". I can see all of this technology beign really useful in social studies but I will only have 30 minutes of teaching time for this subject. I rarely finish teaching all of the TEKS in a school year and this would make that problem even worse if I took more time out to teach how to use a wiki or Google Docs instead of about the first battle of the American Revolution. The final issue is that I don't see our district doing this right away. Every classroom on the videos that had a ton of success with this had a laptop for every student. I think we are a long way from that.
I plan to use Google Docs to work on our Family Fun Night at the elementary. It is coming up soon and I will need to get the whole school on the same page. I don't think I could handle it with e-mail and running around all over the school will be hard to do as well. I am getting a little stressed about it but learning about Google Docs is a little bit of a help. I am not sure that enough people will know about it through this workshop in order to use it in August or September but it is worth a shot. If I have to create a bunch of documents then I might as well create them in Google Docs to allow others to help me with them.
Google docs could be good for students to peer edit writing or to work on a projects. However, I am not sure how to determine which kids are doing the lion's share of the work. If I had kids working on projects in a computer lab I might be able to keep track of it but if I want kids to do these things during computer class or at home on their own time, then I can't control it. I am not really sure how it could be used in math but Google Docs is great for reading, writing, and history classes easily. It seems like a great way to collaborate on something. In fact, it seems a lot like a wiki but with a document instead of just a site. I can imagine that all of the benefits of a wiki would be the same benefits for Google Docs only with a tangible, printable outcome.
The main issues I think of are negative. This is a great tool for writing and editing but it would be hard to keep kids from cheating or bullying others into writing for them. It seems a little untraceable unless you are constantly checking on line to see what each student is doing. Issues that the videos brought up are my same issues. Kids would be chatting, or looking at Facebook instead of working. Another issue I have is time. With everything new, there is a lot of time involved in teaching what needs to be taught on top of teaching the additional skills it takes to implement the "something new". I can see all of this technology beign really useful in social studies but I will only have 30 minutes of teaching time for this subject. I rarely finish teaching all of the TEKS in a school year and this would make that problem even worse if I took more time out to teach how to use a wiki or Google Docs instead of about the first battle of the American Revolution. The final issue is that I don't see our district doing this right away. Every classroom on the videos that had a ton of success with this had a laptop for every student. I think we are a long way from that.
thing 6
I listened to 2 podcasts. One of them was great and the other was barely tolerable. The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to complete this assignment. I listened to 2 history podcasts. I wanted to listen to them on my way out to visit my mom because the trip is about a 5 hour trip. I started off great by listening to a reinactment of someone acting like Thomas Jefferson reading the Declaration of Independence. It was cool to listen to it on the 3rd of July because it had a lot of meaning. The second podcast was about ancient Rome. It would most likely have been interesting but the people recording it were very annoying to listen to. They spoke in strange voices and added silly sound effects. I had a hard time getting through it. I liked having the ability to listen to these in the car or while shopping at the store. However, I hated being stuck with the bad one. I couldn't get to another one either as I had no access to internet at my mom's house. I have to say that this is the most time consuming of all of the "Things" I've had to study.
I can see using a podcast in my social studies class very easily. I think it would be great to hear a story or listen to a speech. However, after putting up with the ancient Rome podcast I can see that it would take a lot of prep time to get a good podcast. I'm not sure I would take the time to listen to multiple podcasts just to find one that I like to have in the classroom. I would most likely use this for my own information and professional development. If I get a bad one I can just delete it. I am not stuck with it in lesson plans with nothing else planned for my time. I can say I don't trust the podcasting very much. It is very time consuming and not always of high quality.
I've used YouTube in the classroom before. It was not very difficult or confusing. However, I had a really hard time embedding the video onto the blog. I had the whole embed code highlited blue but it would only paste over the first line of the code. I finally had to copy the code, paste it into a word document and then transfer it to the blog. I still don't know what I did wrong but I tried it several times.
I got to view the video I chose by viewing the Laughing Baby video. I laughed so hard that I teared up and my daughters wanted to watch the Ninja baby over and over again. I chose it because it was very funny and memorable. I had a ton of fun watching it and I figured other people would get a laugh as well.
I think embedding a video allows instant access to the video and no one has to travel away from it. A link requires one little extra step. It also provides a little bit of a visual hook. If the initial picture on the embedded video looks interesting then people might be more likely to view it. A link is just words that may not describe the contents of the link and some might not want to go to the link. The process of embedding seemed easy. I watched the video twice on how to embed. However, I was never able to paste more than just the first line of the embed code when I went directly from YouTube to my blog. The only way I could get the whole code was to copy it out of YouTube and paste it into a word document. Then I had to copy out of the word document and paste it into the blog. For some reason this worked. What should have been really easy was not but I found a way to work around it.
I have used YouTube in class before to listen to history songs by Johnny Horton and to view clips from the history channel. I don't see an immediate use for it in my math class but my social studies class is a great place to use YouTube. I think I could show clips of battle reinactments or show famous speeches.
I think the educational sites are harder to steer into trouble. TeacherTube provides 100% educational content that is guaranteed to be appropriate for student viewing. YouTube includes everything that anyone could possibly put onto the internet. Some of it is innapropriate and it is not always obvious what will be bad until it has been witnessed. If students are on TeacherTube they can find videos about the things they need to learn about and not the latest pole dance performed by Mylie Cyrus. Students are less likely to get off task and become distracted.
YouTube is fun for students because they can "see" things instead of just "hear" things. YouTube is fun to search through and it includes really entertaining material. YouTube also provides students with an outlet if they choose to post a video. They can be creative. I can see a really cool presentation or book report being places on YouTube. I think it also could allow students to give an oral presentation without the stress of being in front of a room full of people. It could put them at ease, allow them to edit, and deliver a speech or oral report to be viewed by the class later or by the teacher in the privacy of her conference period. I can see YouTube as being great for shy students and fun for the outgoing students.
Video sharing and podcasting has made communication far reaching. Students in Texas can listen to a podcast of Colonial Williamsburg about the Continental Congress. Students can post a video of their opinions about a book they read or pretend to be a character in the book as a book report. Outgoing kids can be creative and have fun with podcasting and videosharing and shy kids can hide behind a camera, complete the same assignment without getting in front of a large audience. Podcasts can make learning an "anytime" thing. You don't have to wait to go to school to learn something new and learners are not stuck learning about what their teachers are teaching. If a student finds something else to be interesting they can find a podcast or video that teaches them about it. On the same note, if a student wants to expand their knowledge of something that they learned about in class they can search for that as well. No one is stuck learning only what others want them to learn. Students can take control of their own education in their free time if they choose to. It is very powerful.
Thing 5
I liked the idea of the wiki after seeing the little video. I immediately thought of a cruise I want to plan with a bunch of family members and friends. I also thought how cool it would be to plan a school party with the parents. I could list what the class needed or ask for game ideas. I liked the idea because I have been a part of the e-mail chaos that ensued when we decided to plan a family camping trip. A wiki would have made it easier and a little more fun I think.
Wiki's are able to be edited and seem a little less formal. I think blogs are more for information sharing with access to comments that people can choose to read or not to read. Wiki's are for collaboration and seem to allow for more communication on a 2 way street. I think a blog is more appropriate if a teacher wants to lead discussion on a topic or share information about an event. A wiki is appropriate if the teacher wants the information to be formed by others. Blog information can be added by others but not changed.
I can see students using wikis to build vocabulary or to discuss a book they are asked to read. It could be a good way to review a book before taking an AR test over it. It could be used to compare and contrast a book the class read to the movie. I can see a ton of ways to use a wiki to study or to speak academically about ELA classes or social studies. I'm not sure about math. I would have to play around with it a little more.
I really liked the wikihow site. I looked at the wiki for camping in the back yard. It was fun to look at because my daughter has been begging to set up the tent in our back yard. Other things that were funny were correct use of certain words. The one I really didn't like was the one where the northern hemisphere talked to the southern hemisphere. It was not very easy to navigate. I tried to look at a few others but none of the topics really interested me. I just looked at a few but not with much interest. I saw the educational benefit of them but the topics held no interest for me.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thing 4
I have already used Snapfish for photo organization and ordering prints but Flickr seems to do more with the photos and allows for me to see other photos. I like doing different things with the pictures but I don't see myself spending a lot of time doing this. I like the more practical uses for Flickr. I think it is important to save photos and tag them and maybe even share them but not to make mosaics, memory games or anything else.
The photos I downloaded were chosen based on the suggestions of the 8things facilitator. I searched the tags that I was told to search and picked the pictures that caught my eye best.
I can see students using Flickr to organize a project using photos such as a geometry project or a social studies/current events project. I can also see them making projects for science and classifying their photos when they have been tagged. The possibilities are endless but I see a danger. If students used Flickr for school they would have to safeguard their private pictures and separate them from their school use pictures. The might even need 2 accounts so they can keep their pictures separate.
I did not know what the Creative Commons License was but could assume that something like it should exist. As in the real world, the virtual world has rules and consequences to keep people safe and happy. Students have to learn how to navigate both worlds successfully to avoid trouble.
For being silly, I liked the memory game because my daughter and I like to play memory. I think she would like to play memory with pictures she is familiar with. On the other hand that would not really be something I would have students do unless they were doing a sort of enrichment project for technology applications. A lot of the mash ups were fun but I didn't see too much educational value to them. I might see searching for pictures of the Civil War and doing a montage to capture the civil war or Colonial Williamsburg. It is possible to see the trading cards image generator. That would be a fun way to introduce yourself in the begining of school or a fun way to talk about a historical figure or a literary figure. I don't see much use for math except for geometry.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thing 3
I have only used Facebook so far. I have always been one to avoid MySpace and things like it due to computer viruses and lack of an iPhone. I think Facebook is fun and I can see the uses in education if everyone could have access. However, I don't think I want to put many professional things on my Facebook account. I have it strictly for fun and keeping up with my family and friends. I don't my professional life to intrude on that too much. I might open up a professional Facebook account but I am already going crazy with log in names and passwords. Until I can get myself organized and keep that information somewhere easy to access I will limit the amount of stuff I sign up for.
Facebook has changed how I communicate with family members and high school friends. I find that I can see what they are up to without living near them and I feel connected to them in a small way. However, living in a small town and being a teacher has made me very careful with how I communicate with parents or former students. On one hand it is fun to let loose on Facebook and be silly but I can't truly be honest or say everything I am thinking because of who my audience is. I found that out the hard way. I was frustrated with a demeaning staff development I was forced to participate in and I made a "harmless" comment. It really set people off. My teacher friends knew what I was talking about and it allowed them to vent but my family and non-teacher friends thought something was wrong and felt the need to council me or try to "talk" about it. I made a simple, harmless comment but I learned not to do that anymore. Facebook has freed me to talk conversationally with others but it has made me aware of my audience more.
Obviously social media is positive in that we can communicate with more people in an almost instant way. That is really cool. It is a way to connect with our students as well by using new things that kids like to do what we want them to do. The down side of social media is the lack of "face time" that people need. We are social creatures but a lot of a social encounter involves hearing tone of voice, seeing body language and dealing with different personalities face to face. I like to visit with people in person and I think that many people lack the interpersonal skills they need for their jobs because they are always relating to others digitally. It is obvious to me that some people lack social skills and I don't see them developing social skills by hiding behind an iPhone or laptop. People skills are still important.
I don't really know how social networks are affecting "my" specific students because most of these sites are blocked at our school and cell phones are not allowed either. Technology like this does not really make an impact in my daily educational life. In a more distant way however, I have access to more information due to this technology so these networks allow me to be a different teacher - thus my students are impacted a little. One of these days when all of the kinks are worked out in our school district with regards to allowable media devices, program support, and access - I would love to try to use a media site for a class. I don't really know how yet. To be honest, I doubt I will invest much brain power into doing this type of project until all of the ducks are in a row. There is nothing worse than slaving over lesson plans and getting to a computer lab where the sites are blocked, the printers don't work, and the computers won't work. I have been there and done that.
Facebook has changed how I communicate with family members and high school friends. I find that I can see what they are up to without living near them and I feel connected to them in a small way. However, living in a small town and being a teacher has made me very careful with how I communicate with parents or former students. On one hand it is fun to let loose on Facebook and be silly but I can't truly be honest or say everything I am thinking because of who my audience is. I found that out the hard way. I was frustrated with a demeaning staff development I was forced to participate in and I made a "harmless" comment. It really set people off. My teacher friends knew what I was talking about and it allowed them to vent but my family and non-teacher friends thought something was wrong and felt the need to council me or try to "talk" about it. I made a simple, harmless comment but I learned not to do that anymore. Facebook has freed me to talk conversationally with others but it has made me aware of my audience more.
Obviously social media is positive in that we can communicate with more people in an almost instant way. That is really cool. It is a way to connect with our students as well by using new things that kids like to do what we want them to do. The down side of social media is the lack of "face time" that people need. We are social creatures but a lot of a social encounter involves hearing tone of voice, seeing body language and dealing with different personalities face to face. I like to visit with people in person and I think that many people lack the interpersonal skills they need for their jobs because they are always relating to others digitally. It is obvious to me that some people lack social skills and I don't see them developing social skills by hiding behind an iPhone or laptop. People skills are still important.
I don't really know how social networks are affecting "my" specific students because most of these sites are blocked at our school and cell phones are not allowed either. Technology like this does not really make an impact in my daily educational life. In a more distant way however, I have access to more information due to this technology so these networks allow me to be a different teacher - thus my students are impacted a little. One of these days when all of the kinks are worked out in our school district with regards to allowable media devices, program support, and access - I would love to try to use a media site for a class. I don't really know how yet. To be honest, I doubt I will invest much brain power into doing this type of project until all of the ducks are in a row. There is nothing worse than slaving over lesson plans and getting to a computer lab where the sites are blocked, the printers don't work, and the computers won't work. I have been there and done that.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Thing 2
At first I thought the Discovery Resources gave interesting information that was a little scary. I am young enough to enjoy using and learning about these things, but I’m old enough to have a healthy respect or fear for what types of scary things this has the potential to introduce to students. I am interested in the wikis, podcasts, and blogs but I am discouraged by how much money a school would need to invest just to support these tools at school. I also am discouraged about my students being limited by their own lack of finances or access to the technology. I hope to learn more about how these tools can be used successfully in a math classroom. So far every video I have seen and article I have read really makes these tools out to be great for English, science, social studies, current event….. I still don’t see anything I can use with math yet.
I would really have to think hard about how to use the Web 2.0 tools in my math or social studies classroom. I can see it better for social studies than math. I think some project can be created to use these tools. It is possible that kids could research an era, or a president or a state and collaborate about it. I am not really sure at this time that our school is ready to accommodate all of this but it would be great if we could.
The resources were eye opening, interesting, and scary all at the same time. I have little girls and I fear for what they can get themselves into with all of this access. For similar reasons I fear what my students will get into with full access to the power of this technology. I might be able to use it as a research tool in social studies and possible as a location to store notes for absent kids and podcasts for people who miss the lesson. It could help parents understand the lessons as well if they are trying to help their kids with homework.
Having only experience in Bastrop and Smithville, I am limited by my experiences. I can’t conceive of allowing kids access to their cell phones for the purposes of texting teachers or other students about an assignment. I can’t envision schools keeping up with the technology as it grows. I have no doubt that Web 2.0 has the potential to be awesome for education if we can get to the point of trusting kids with the technology and all of the power it gives people.
Unfortunately, I see these tools benefitting me more than my students. I am a responsible adult who will use the technology with integrity to gain knowledge and experience on things I need help with. I have fear about using it with my students. I will be more inclined to use the tools for a few years before creating something for kids to use it for. I would like to be fluent with the tools so I can predict pitfalls. I would also like to let our resources catch up a little before trying to rely on technology as the sole source of learning.
Obviously, people learn well from their peers. I think this collaboration can only make a student better. I don’t see it hurting. A fear might be that it will stymie a students’ ability to think for themselves because they will never have the opportunity to have an original thought. However, I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing. In the real world the original thinkers are always noticed and the followers are always safe. These tools will give students the ability to hear many different views and outlooks and make their own decisions about which ones they agree with the most. I do not think this is good for interaction. If anything all of this technology is very impersonal and anonymous. Even if someone knows who is blogging or IM’ing, students are likely to “feel” more anonymous when doing these things. That could be a really negative thing. I don’t think technology should ever take the place of good interpersonal skills.
The obstacles are very easy for me to see. It is easier for me to see the obstacles than the benefits unfortunately. The child who uses the cell phone to text someone is unable to be done currently as cell phone use is prohibited in schools. Using just the internet and a printer has proven difficult at times in school due to firewalls and slow processing and outdated hardware so using microphones for podcasts seems like it would be found only in an episode of the “Jetsons”. I know all of these capabilities exist and life might be pretty cool if the “Day in the Life” scenario were possible but I think it is really idealistic. Schools have very little money and all of this technology, while free to use, is not free to support. Another obstacle is teacher/parent fears. Teachers fear allowing kids too much access in case they do not use the technology in a responsible way. Parents fear what their kids might be exposed to at school when they are not under their watchful eye.
I would really have to think hard about how to use the Web 2.0 tools in my math or social studies classroom. I can see it better for social studies than math. I think some project can be created to use these tools. It is possible that kids could research an era, or a president or a state and collaborate about it. I am not really sure at this time that our school is ready to accommodate all of this but it would be great if we could.
The resources were eye opening, interesting, and scary all at the same time. I have little girls and I fear for what they can get themselves into with all of this access. For similar reasons I fear what my students will get into with full access to the power of this technology. I might be able to use it as a research tool in social studies and possible as a location to store notes for absent kids and podcasts for people who miss the lesson. It could help parents understand the lessons as well if they are trying to help their kids with homework.
Having only experience in Bastrop and Smithville, I am limited by my experiences. I can’t conceive of allowing kids access to their cell phones for the purposes of texting teachers or other students about an assignment. I can’t envision schools keeping up with the technology as it grows. I have no doubt that Web 2.0 has the potential to be awesome for education if we can get to the point of trusting kids with the technology and all of the power it gives people.
Unfortunately, I see these tools benefitting me more than my students. I am a responsible adult who will use the technology with integrity to gain knowledge and experience on things I need help with. I have fear about using it with my students. I will be more inclined to use the tools for a few years before creating something for kids to use it for. I would like to be fluent with the tools so I can predict pitfalls. I would also like to let our resources catch up a little before trying to rely on technology as the sole source of learning.
Obviously, people learn well from their peers. I think this collaboration can only make a student better. I don’t see it hurting. A fear might be that it will stymie a students’ ability to think for themselves because they will never have the opportunity to have an original thought. However, I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing. In the real world the original thinkers are always noticed and the followers are always safe. These tools will give students the ability to hear many different views and outlooks and make their own decisions about which ones they agree with the most. I do not think this is good for interaction. If anything all of this technology is very impersonal and anonymous. Even if someone knows who is blogging or IM’ing, students are likely to “feel” more anonymous when doing these things. That could be a really negative thing. I don’t think technology should ever take the place of good interpersonal skills.
The obstacles are very easy for me to see. It is easier for me to see the obstacles than the benefits unfortunately. The child who uses the cell phone to text someone is unable to be done currently as cell phone use is prohibited in schools. Using just the internet and a printer has proven difficult at times in school due to firewalls and slow processing and outdated hardware so using microphones for podcasts seems like it would be found only in an episode of the “Jetsons”. I know all of these capabilities exist and life might be pretty cool if the “Day in the Life” scenario were possible but I think it is really idealistic. Schools have very little money and all of this technology, while free to use, is not free to support. Another obstacle is teacher/parent fears. Teachers fear allowing kids too much access in case they do not use the technology in a responsible way. Parents fear what their kids might be exposed to at school when they are not under their watchful eye.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Thing 1
I am participating in 8 Things for two reasons. The most selfish reason is to get my staff development credit so that I can have a comp day. 8 Things gives me the power to do this while I am at home and don’t need to pay for a sitter. The second reason is because the 8 things seemed pretty interesting. I am stuck in a strange place by my age. I am young enough to be expected to know many of the new technologies and old enough to have strong opinions about the downfalls of some of the technologies. While I love the instant access to information and communication, I think that technology has the potential to limit social skills and to limit the ability for people to plan, organize, and think on their feet. Everything has benefits and drawbacks. I hope that some of my strong opinions will be changed when I understand the technology better. I hope to learn enough to keep up with my young students as well as my own personal children. I also hope to use some of this new technology to help me gain teaching time for the red headed stepchild of elementary education – social studies.
During thing one I didn’t really have any revelations about the blog itself but rather on how I could use it. I see it as an incredible way to extend my social studies class into current events discussions or into a way for students to reflect on the social studies topics we are covering. This will only really benefit the kids who have access to the blog at home or the willingness to access the blog at the library. Not all students will be motivated or have access so I couldn’t make it worth a grade. However, I see this as a way to talk about s.s. more since we will only have about 25 – 30 minutes for the subject during the school day. I would like to explore adding video to my s.s. blog from different sites like History Channel or something.
I liked the hobo teacher blog because it was cute and pretty entertaining to read. I don’t know that I got much out of it other than a chuckle. If I have free time to read it I might go back to it but one of the dangers of this type of technology is the potential to waste time. I would be easily side tracked and I doubt I would search the internet just to find a blog about funny teaching stories. I would most likely look for a blog that gave me information that I could use. The blog about Room Eight is a cute idea. In fact, I had kids in my class this last year who took it upon themselves to create a class newspaper. I let them do it but did not really direct it. They assigned roles and gave their own deadlines. It would be fun to offer them a way to do the same thing on line. However, it seems like not everyone would get to participate due to lack of internet access on the part of some kids. All kids could participate in the pencil and paper variety. I would also be concerned that they might feel a little more anonymous on the internet and they might abuse it a little. If the teacher took the time to do it and keep everything nice and appropriate, that is one thing. However, to have a class newspaper blog without having the teacher do all of the moderating would not be wise. The kinderblog was fun to read since my youngest just finished kindergarten. I would have logged on to see what was going on in her class if they had a blog. However, I can only imagine the intense amount of time the teacher had to put in just to get the blog going. I’m not sure I would invest my time in that way. Things like this are fun to read but may not be so fun to create and maintain.
My opinions about writing on the internet are very conflicted. I think that writing for an audience is really important but this type of writing does not allow you to pick your audience – the audience picks you. If I were interested in reading a blog about Chihuahuas I could look it up and pick which one I wanted to read. I could choose a blog. As a consumer, I have the power to pass over the blogs that are not interesting to me or the ones that seem to be of less quality. For this reason, it is important to have good stuff on your blog so that people will choose yours. However, as a reader of the blog I really have no idea if the blog posts I am reading are junk or really good. I honestly believe that I will be more of a blog reader than a blog creator in my future because I don’t feel like I have something important enough to say that I need the internet to be my audience. I have plenty to say to people who ask me questions based on the fact that they KNOW that I have particular strengths, but I don’t have anything to say to random people who don’t know me or really know if what I am saying is valid. As far as student writing goes. Writing for an audience might make them think before they write but it doesn’t teach them the power of well planned text. Writing certain information for a specific topic is academically different from writing your opinion about your favorite subject. Even after this reflection, I am still conflicted about whether I think this type of writing is good for learning or bad. The jury is still out.
As I mentioned above, I think that this would be great to use in social studies to discuss current events or citizenship. I can see using this some day to discuss things about social studies that are not necessarily TEKS and can’t be covered in class. I think it would be fun to have a post that is linked to History Channel to let kids view the clips about “This Day In History”. I can see opening a discussion about a controversial subject and blogging about it. This is sort of like an on line journal. In fact, I might see this as a way to get kids to journal without my taking home a lot of paper. The kids who can blog a journal can get credit but the kids without access to the blog can journal on paper. It is at least versatile in that way.
During thing one I didn’t really have any revelations about the blog itself but rather on how I could use it. I see it as an incredible way to extend my social studies class into current events discussions or into a way for students to reflect on the social studies topics we are covering. This will only really benefit the kids who have access to the blog at home or the willingness to access the blog at the library. Not all students will be motivated or have access so I couldn’t make it worth a grade. However, I see this as a way to talk about s.s. more since we will only have about 25 – 30 minutes for the subject during the school day. I would like to explore adding video to my s.s. blog from different sites like History Channel or something.
I liked the hobo teacher blog because it was cute and pretty entertaining to read. I don’t know that I got much out of it other than a chuckle. If I have free time to read it I might go back to it but one of the dangers of this type of technology is the potential to waste time. I would be easily side tracked and I doubt I would search the internet just to find a blog about funny teaching stories. I would most likely look for a blog that gave me information that I could use. The blog about Room Eight is a cute idea. In fact, I had kids in my class this last year who took it upon themselves to create a class newspaper. I let them do it but did not really direct it. They assigned roles and gave their own deadlines. It would be fun to offer them a way to do the same thing on line. However, it seems like not everyone would get to participate due to lack of internet access on the part of some kids. All kids could participate in the pencil and paper variety. I would also be concerned that they might feel a little more anonymous on the internet and they might abuse it a little. If the teacher took the time to do it and keep everything nice and appropriate, that is one thing. However, to have a class newspaper blog without having the teacher do all of the moderating would not be wise. The kinderblog was fun to read since my youngest just finished kindergarten. I would have logged on to see what was going on in her class if they had a blog. However, I can only imagine the intense amount of time the teacher had to put in just to get the blog going. I’m not sure I would invest my time in that way. Things like this are fun to read but may not be so fun to create and maintain.
My opinions about writing on the internet are very conflicted. I think that writing for an audience is really important but this type of writing does not allow you to pick your audience – the audience picks you. If I were interested in reading a blog about Chihuahuas I could look it up and pick which one I wanted to read. I could choose a blog. As a consumer, I have the power to pass over the blogs that are not interesting to me or the ones that seem to be of less quality. For this reason, it is important to have good stuff on your blog so that people will choose yours. However, as a reader of the blog I really have no idea if the blog posts I am reading are junk or really good. I honestly believe that I will be more of a blog reader than a blog creator in my future because I don’t feel like I have something important enough to say that I need the internet to be my audience. I have plenty to say to people who ask me questions based on the fact that they KNOW that I have particular strengths, but I don’t have anything to say to random people who don’t know me or really know if what I am saying is valid. As far as student writing goes. Writing for an audience might make them think before they write but it doesn’t teach them the power of well planned text. Writing certain information for a specific topic is academically different from writing your opinion about your favorite subject. Even after this reflection, I am still conflicted about whether I think this type of writing is good for learning or bad. The jury is still out.
As I mentioned above, I think that this would be great to use in social studies to discuss current events or citizenship. I can see using this some day to discuss things about social studies that are not necessarily TEKS and can’t be covered in class. I think it would be fun to have a post that is linked to History Channel to let kids view the clips about “This Day In History”. I can see opening a discussion about a controversial subject and blogging about it. This is sort of like an on line journal. In fact, I might see this as a way to get kids to journal without my taking home a lot of paper. The kids who can blog a journal can get credit but the kids without access to the blog can journal on paper. It is at least versatile in that way.
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